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

Singh, Simon; Foreword by John Lynch

ISBN 10: 0802713319 / ISBN 13: 9780802713315

Published by Walker and Company, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1997

About this Item

Walker and Company, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1997. Fourth (4th) Printing (number line down to 4) of the First American Edition. Originally published in the UK in 1997 by Fourth Estate as "Fermat's Last Theorem". As New in an As New Dust Jacket. Unread. The Text Block is clean, bright white, tight, straight and square with no markings of any kind. The Binding is full black cloth, color uniform throughout, with bright copper title, etc., to the spine, unmarked yellow endpapers, and all corners square and sharp. The Dust Jacket is flawless - bright, colors uniform throughout, and fully intact with the original price ($23.00) intact on the front flap. See photos. xviii, 315 pages. 5 1/2" 7 1/2". A history of the mathematics and attempts to solve the conjecture postulated by Pierre de Fermat in 1637 [viz., that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2], which remained unsolved until Professor Andrew Wile published his proof in 1995. Foreword by John Lynch. Appendices, Suggestions for Further Reading and Index. ISBN 10: 0802713319 / ISBN 13: 9780802713315.

Seller Inventory # 001045

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem
• Publisher: Walker and Company, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802713319
• ISBN 13: 9780802713315
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New

About this title

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.

Review

When Cambridge mathematician Andrew Wiles announced a solution for 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 laboured 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 colourful history that has build up around Fermat's last theorem over the years. The book contains some problems that offer a taste for the maths, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the quirkier side of mathematicians.