the story of a riddle that confounded the world's greatest minds for 358 years
Simon Singh: Fermat's last theorem (2007, Harper Perennial)
xn + yn = zn, where n represents 3, 4, 5, ...no solution "I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain." With these words, the seventeenth-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat threw down the gauntlet to future generations. What came to be known as Fermat's Last Theorem looked simple; proving it, however, became the Holy Grail of mathematics, baffling its finest minds for more than 350 years.
In Fermat's Enigma--based on the author's award-winning documentary film, which aired on …
xn + yn = zn, where n represents 3, 4, 5, ...no solution "I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain." With these words, the seventeenth-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat threw down the gauntlet to future generations. What came to be known as Fermat's Last Theorem looked simple; proving it, however, became the Holy Grail of mathematics, baffling its finest minds for more than 350 years.
In Fermat's Enigma--based on the author's award-winning documentary film, which aired on PBS's "Nova"--Simon Singh tells the astonishingly entertaining story of the pursuit of that grail, and the lives that were devoted to, sacrificed for, and saved by it. Here is a mesmerizing tale of heartbreak and mastery that will forever change your feelings about mathematics.
340 pages
English language
Published Nov. 11, 2007 by Harper Perennial.
I really enjoyed this book, it's like a thriller, chasing around the world through time to find the missing pieces to prove the theorem. For me the book might've gone a bit deeper on the different mathematical topics rather than just give a quick overview, but that would have made it way less appealing to a general audience so I totally understand the author here.
