Fermats last theorem book simon singh biography
•
Fermat's Last Theorem (book)
Non-fiction book by Simon Singh
Fermat's Last Theorem is a popular science book (1997) by Simon Singh. It tells the story of the search for a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, first conjectured by Pierre de Fermat in 1637, and explores how many mathematicians such as Évariste Galois had tried and failed to provide a proof for the theorem.[1][2][3][4] Despite the efforts of many mathematicians, the proof would remain incomplete until 1995, with the publication of Andrew Wiles' proof of the Theorem. The book is the first mathematics book to become a Number One seller in the United Kingdom,[5] whilst Singh's documentary The Proof, on which the book was based, won a BAFTA in 1997.[6]
In the United States, the book was released as Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem.[1][3] The book was released in the United States in Octob
•
This is it – the entire story of Fermat’s Last Theorem in a couple of thousand words. If this is a bit daunting, click here to see Fermat’s Last Theorem in 100 Words.
The Quest to Solve the World’s Most Notorious Mathematical Problem
In 1963 a 10-year old boy borrowed a book from his local library in Cambridge, England. The boy was Andrew Wiles, a schoolchild with a passion for mathematics, and the book that had caught his eye was ‘The Last Problem’ by the mathematician Eric Temple Bell. The book recounted the history of Fermat’s Last Theorem, the most famous problem in mathematics, which had baffled the greatest minds on the planet for over three centuries.
There can be no problem in the field of physics, chemistry or biology that has so vehemently resisted attack for so many years. Indeed E.T. Bell predicted that civilisation would come to an end as a result of nuclear war before Fermat’s Last Theorem would ever be resolved. Nonetheless young Wiles was undaunt
•
In 1997 I published my first book, a biography of a mathematical theorem. Below is a very brief summary of what it is about.
‘I have discovered a truly marvellous proof,
which this margin is too narrow to contain…’
With these tantalising words the seventeenth-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat threw down the gauntlet to future generations. Fermat’s Last Theorem looked simple enough for a child to solve, yet the finest mathematical minds would be baffled by the search for the proof.
Over three hundred and fifty years were to pass before a mild-mannered Englishman finally cracked the mystery in 1995. Fermat by then was far more than a theorem. Whole lives had been devoted to the quest for a solution. There was Sophie Germain, who had to take on the identity of a man to conduct research in a field forbidden to females. The dashing Evariste Galois scribbled down the results of his research deep into the night before sauntering out to die in a due