
Fermat's Enigma
The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem
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ISBN10: 0385493622 ISBN13: 9780385493628 Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group Published: Oct 1 1998 Pages: 336 Weight: 0.50lbs. Height: 7.25" Width: 5.00" Depth: 1.00" Language: English
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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.Related Subjects