Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem at WalMart.com

Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem at WalMart.com

A national best-seller traces the quest of scientists around the world to solve the theorem devised by seventeenth-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, a story of extraordinary human emotion, ambition, and desperation. Reprint. AB. LJ. NYT. PW.

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.