Fermat's enigma : the quest to solve the world's greatest mathematical problem

By - Singh, Simon

Floor - Floor 2

Published - Walker, New York, 1997

ISBN 10 - 0385493622

ISBN 13 - 9780385493628

Book Status - 1 Qnty Available with us.

Subject - Wiles, Andrew , Fermat's last theorem

Shelf No - 2

Call Number - 512.74 SIN

Physical Description - xviii, 315 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Notes - Includes index

Book Information

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.

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