Fermat's enigma
Subtitle: the epic quest to solve the world's greatest mathematical problem
By: Simon Singh ; foreword by John Lynch
Edition: 1st Anchor Books edition
Publisher: Anchor Books
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 315
ISBN-13: 9780385493628
Subjects: Fermat's last theorem
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.
Notes: Originally published: New York : Walker, 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-305) and index.
Table of contents: title: 1.; title: "I Think I'll Stop Here" -- 1 -- 2.; title: The Riddler -- 35 -- 3.; title: A Mathematical Disgrace -- 71 -- 4.; title: Into Abstraction -- 121 -- 5.; title: Proof by Contradiction -- 171 -- 6.; title: The Secret Calculation -- 205 -- 7.; title: A Slight Problem -- 255 -- Epilogue; title: Grand Unified Mathematics -- 279; title: Suggestions for Further Reading -- 301; title: Picture Credits-- 306.