Fermat's Enigma

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

1st Anchor Books Edition

Paperback (08 Sep 1998)

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Publisher's Synopsis

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.

Book information

ISBN: 9780385493628
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Imprint: Anchor Books
Pub date:
Edition: 1st Anchor Books Edition
DEWEY: 512.74
DEWEY edition: 21
Language: English
Number of pages: 315
Weight: 227g
Height: 184mm
Width: 127mm
Spine width: 22mm