Research Catalog

Title

Fermat's enigma : the epic quest to solve the world's greatest mathematical problem / Simon Singh ; foreward by John Lynch.

Author

Singh, Simon.

Publication

New York : Walker, 1997.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xviii, 315 pages : illustrations; 20 cm

Summary

• Fermat's Last Theorem became the Holy Grail of mathematics. Whole and colorful lives were devoted, and even sacrificed, to finding a proof. Leonhard Euler, the greatest mathematician of the eighteenth century, had to admit defeat. Sophie Germain took on the identity of a man to do research in a field forbidden to females, and made the most significant breakthrough of the nineteenth century.
• The dashing Evariste Galois scribbled down the results of his research deep into the night before venturing out to die in a duel in 1832. Yutaka Taniyama, whose insights would ultimately lead to the solution, tragically killed himself in 1958. On the other hand, Paul Wolfskehl, a famous German industrialist, claimed Fermat had saved him from suicide, and established a rich prize for the first person to prove the theorem.
• And then came Princeton professor Andrew Wiles, who had dreamed of proving Fermat's Last Theorem ever since he first read of it as a boy of ten in his local library. In 1993, some 356 years after Fermat's challenge, and after seven years of working in isolation and secrecy - "a kind of private and very personal battle I was engaged in" - Wiles stunned the world by announcing a proof, though his own journey would be far from over.
• Fermat's Enigma is the story of the epic quest to solve the greatest math problem of all time. A human drama of high dreams, intellectual brilliance, and extraordinary determination, it will bring the history and culture of mathematics into exciting focus for all who read it.

Subjects

• Wiles, Andrew
• Fermat's last theorem

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-305) and index.

ISBN

0802713319 (hardcover)

LCCN

97020748

OCLC

• 36969738
• ocm36969738

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries