Fermat's Last Theorem
the story of a riddle that confounded the world's greatest minds for 358 years
About this book
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.
Subjects
- 31.01 history of mathematics
- beweis
- elliptic curves
- fermatsche vermutung
- fermat's last theorem
- fermat-vermutung
- feruma no mondai
- geschichte
- grand théorème de fermat
- history
- mathematics
- new york times reviewed
- number theory
- proof
- studies
- teorema de fermat
- teorema di fermat
- theorema van fermat
- wiles, andrew
- wiskunde