When Cambridge mathematician Andrew Wiles announced a solution for Fermat’s last theorem in 1993, it electrified the world of mathematics. After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year–he had already laboured in solitude for seven years–to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh’s book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles’s work and of the colourful history that has build up around Fermat’s last theorem over the years. The book contains some problems that offer a taste for the maths, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the quirkier side of mathematicians.

Format: Paperback
Published: in UK in 1998
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Pages: 362
Language: English
ISBN 13: 9780007902491
ISBN 10: 0007902492