Who would've thought the field of mathematics would be so filled with suspense and intrigue?
Pythagoras' theorem is well-known as the method of figuring out the hypotenuse of a triangle. Any three numbers that make this equation work are known as Pythagorean triples.
French mathematician Pierre de Fermat left a legacy when he scribbled a note in the margin of Book II of Arithmetica, stating that he had a way of demonstrating that x to the nth power + y to the nth power = z to the nth power has no solution, where n equals any number greater than 2. Generations of mathematicians were stumped -- until along came Andrew Wiles, who, in 1993, gave a lecture announcing his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.
Fermat's Last Theorem is actually a simple concept, but one that took more than 350 years to prove. Along the way, mathematicians drove themselves to find a solution, giving birth to entirely new fields of mathematics as a result of their pursuits.
Simon Singh's bestselling tale of this theorem, Fermat's Enigma, traces the history of mathematics up through what would be the final proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Singh is able to draw his readers into this world of numbers without becoming dry or tedious. You get to see the real people who devoted their lives and extraordinary amounts of time to find a relationship between these numbers.
Anyone with even a mild interest in math or science will enjoy this book. Through the sciences, the hidden workings of the world become clearer. And in order to understand the language of the planets and stars, we must first understand numbers, which are the alphabet of that language..
