Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780385493628)

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.

Author: Simon Singh
ISBN-10: 0385493622
ISBN-13: 9780385493628
Publisher: Anchor Books
Language: English
Published: 09/08/1998
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 7.06h x 4.92w x 0.88d