Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem [Hardcover]

Amir D. Aczel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 1996

Over three hundred years ago, a French scholar scribbled a simple theorem in the margin of a book. It would become the world's most baffling mathematical mystery. Simple, elegant, and utterly impossible to prove, Fermat's Last Theorem captured the imaginations of amateur and professional mathematicians for over three centuries. For some it became a wonderful passion. For others it was an obsession that led to deceit, intrigue, or insanity. In a volume filled with the clues, red herrings, and suspense of a mystery novel, Dr. Amir Aczel reveals the previously untold story of the people, the history, and the cultures that lie behind this scientific triumph. From formulas devised for the farmers of ancient Babylonia to the dramatic proof of Fermat's theorem in 1993, this extraordinary work takes us along on an exhilarating intellectual treasure hunt. Revealing the hidden mathematical order of the natural world in everything from stars to sunflowers, Fermat's Last Theorem brilliantly combines philosophy and hard science with investigative journalism. The result: a real-life detective story of the intellect, at once intriguing, thought-provoking, and impossible to put down.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Born in 1601, Pierre de Fermat lived a quiet life as a civil servant in Toulouse, France. In his spare time, however, Fermat dabbled in mathematics, and somehow managed to become one of the great mathematical theorists of his century. Around 1637 he scribbled a marginal note in one of his books. In it, he stated that he had solved a celebrated number theory problem: "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which, however, the margin is not large enough to contain."

If only the margin had been wider! For more than 300 years, mathematicians labored to crack the secret of Fermat's Last Theorem, without any success. Finally, in 1995, a Princeton-based mathematician named Andrew Wiles solved the riddle. Amir Aczel's account of this brainteaser and its solution is an irresistible read. And for mathematical dolts--like myself, for instance--it includes a concise, profusely illustrated history of mathematical theory from the Bronze Age to our own fin-de-siecle.

From Library Journal

It is extremely unusual for an advance in pure mathematics to draw the attention of the press worldwide. However, there was a great furor in 1993 when Andrew Wiles announced he had derived a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, which had defeated mathematicians for more than 300 years. This brief book, written by a statistician rather than a number theorist, presents for the general public the long historical background, the awkward temporary retraction by Wiles, and his final triumph in 1995. The human drama is well presented, but the discussion of the mathematics itself is less successful. The author makes a good start in dealing with the fundamentals but leaps too quickly for lay readers into more complex ideas laden with jargon that is only partially explained. The book might have worked better if the author had taken several dozen additional pages to work through the mathematical concepts in more detail. For larger math collections.?Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1St Edition edition (October 20, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568580770
• ISBN-13: 978-1568580777
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #999,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars On the Right Track but Flawed, May 16, 2002

By 

Farffleblex Plaffington (Parnybarnel, Mississippi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem (Paperback)

Amir D. Aczel's _Fermat's Last Theorem_ starts with great promise. Aczel begins by describing Andrew Wiles' initial, although flawed, surprise presentation of a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem--one of the "Holy Grails" of mathematics--at a 1993 conference. Here, Aczel writes with gripping suspense. You can't wait to read on and find out all the details--a summary of the solution unfolding like a mystery novel as Wiles spells out the proof on the blackboard, an account of the reaction of Wiles' colleagues, an explanation of the hole in the proof that was soon after discovered, and the tale of how Wiles plugged the hole.

But after only a few pages, Aczel takes a sidestep to tell a bit of the history of Pierre de Fermat and the origin of the theorem. This is understandable, since the reader needs some background information on the nature of the problem, its difficulty, and its importance before we get back to the proof. However, the Fermat detour is only the first of many, and the next 100 pages (in a book only 136 pages long) amount to one long alternate route explaining the mathematics that led to Fermat's conjecture and the mathematics that grew out of attempts to prove it.

Unfortunately, there are some serious flaws with the approach and the overall conception of the book. _Fermat's Last Theorem_ is written for interested laypersons. That idea in itself is problematic in that the mathematics behind the proof encompasses a huge swath of the entire field, including many complex graduate-level topics. It is still possible to tackle the job, but Aczel, or his publisher, further compounded the problem by limiting the book to 136 relatively scant pages. Aczel's solution is to handle the book as a cursory survey of the personalities and ideas that contribute to the problem and solution. Each personality receives only a few pages, and the ideas are presented in a way that they'll probably further confuse a novice yet frustrate a more serious student or amateur who would like to really _understand_ some of the mathematics--not just know the names of some of the ideas. Worse, Aczel never bothers to really tie the ideas together and relate them all to solving Fermat's Last Theorem--in retrospect many just hang like forgotten laundry. Additionally, Aczel loses his intriguing, suspenseful voice soon after the material on Fermat begins and barely recovers it near the end. The final result is a very shallow history of mathematics where novices will forget 80% of what they read by the next day and serious students and amateurs will feel that they don't know much more than when they began.

It would have been wiser to expand the book to at least four times its current size, spend more time on each topic, and present more serious mathematical material in a large number of sidebars, which novices could skip. It would have also been wiser to maintain the Wiles story and lay out a simplified version of the proof step-by-step, delving into background material as necessary. As written, the best we can hope for is that Fermat's Last Theorem might whet your appetite for a more in-depth study. Aczel's writing is not bad, and I'm confident he knows his subject--if he'd only tell us about it. It's a shame that such interesting material is given such a light treatment.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK, But Not the Best Book on Fermat's Last Theorem, July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem (Hardcover)

I accidentally read this instead of the book my brother really recommended to me, Fermat's Enigma, by Simon Singh. (q.v.) I subsequently read Singh's book, and it is MUCH better than Aczel's. This book tells the story, but with a bland high school textbook style, and with too much emphasis on the gossipy politics involved. If you are, like me, a non-mathematician, I think you will enjoy the Singh book (which is based on the popular BBC TV special about FLT) much more than this one.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars an uninspired account of Fermat's Last Theorem, November 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem (Paperback)

If you are curious about Fermat's Last Theorem and have no special background in mathematics, this is an adequate book for you to read. However, I can't really recommend it too strongly. The author strings together a lot of standard anecdotes, stories, mathematical examples, etc., together with an outline of the progress on Fermat's Last Theorem through the ages. The anecdotes, etc. have all been better told in other books, although there's nothing really wrong with the telling here. The outline will be covered well in just about any article or book on this topic.

My recommendation is that if you have a strong desire to learn about Fermat's Last Theorem, you should read Singh's book "Fermat's Enigma" (which covers the same ground as this book, but is better written and more engaging). If you don't have such a strong desire but are just curious about mathematics, you might be better off with a book on some other mathematical topic, since Fermat's Last Theorem is really not representative of much of mathematics.

If you frequently read popular mathematics books, you can skip this one, since you'll already be familiar with all the highlights.