Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem - Simon Singh

Compelling, dramatic, and entirely accessible, Fermat's Enigma is a mesmerizing tale of heartbreak and mastery, and one that will forever change the reader's feelings about mathematics. Simon Singh co-produced an award-winning documentary film on Fermat's Last Theorem that aired on PBS's Nova series. 21 illustrations. 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.