num_pages: 315
description: 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.
language: English
title: Fermat's Enigma
titlecomplete: Fermat's Enigma
genres: Physics, Historical, Biography, Philosophy, History Of Science, Science, Nonfiction, Mathematics, History, Popular Science
ratings_count: 30209
awards: awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Royal Society Science Book Prize
category: General Prize, awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY)
category: Science
publisher: Anchor