Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem - Hardcover

Simon Singh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802713319 ISBN 13: 9780802713315

Publisher: Walker & Co, 1997

Synopsis

Scheduled to be published across the globe, the story of Fermat's Last Theorem, devised by the seventeenth-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, recounts the struggles of three and a half centuries of scientists to devise a proof for it.

About this title

Review:

When Andrew Wiles of Princeton University announced a solution of Fermat's last theorem in 1993 it electrified the world of mathematics. After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year--he had already labored in solitude for seven years--to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh's book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles's work and of the star-, trauma-, and wacko-studded history of Fermat's last theorem. Fermat's Enigma contains some problems that offer a taste for the math, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the goofy side of mathematicians.

From the Publisher:

"An excellent account of one of the most dramatic and moving events of the century."
--Sir Roger Penrose, New York Times Book Review

"It is hard to imagine a more gripping account of...this centuries-long drama of ingenious failures, crushed hopes, fatal duels, and suicides."
--Jim Holt, The Wall Street Journal

"Though Singh may not ask us to bring too much algebra to the table, he does expect us to appreciate a good detective story."
--Boston Sunday Globe

"The history of mathematics comes alive even for those who dread balancing their checkbooks."
--Publishers Weekly

"Singh captures the joys and frustrations of this quest for an extremely elusive proof...and builds to a truly engrossing climax. It's a mathematical page-turner."
--Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker & Co
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0802713319
• ISBN 13: 9780802713315
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 315