The Last Problem (Spectrum) [Paperback]

E. T. Bell (Author), Underwood Dudley (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0883854511 | ISBN-13: 978-0883854518 | Publication Date: August 6, 1998 | Edition: Rev Upd Su

What Eric Temple Bell calls the last problem is the problem of proving ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’, which Fermat wrote in the margin of a book almost 350 years ago. The original text of The Last Problem traced the problem from 2000 BC to 17th century France. Along the way we learn quite a bit about history, and just as much about mathematics. Underwood Dudley’s notes bring us up-to-date on recent attempts to solve the problem - for the latest printing, he has added a three page addendum about its recent proof by Andrew Wiles. This book fits no categories. It is not a book of mathematics: it is a biography of a famous problem. Pages go by without an equation appearing. It is both a history of number theory and its place in our civilisation, and a history of our civilisation’s relationship with mathematics. This rich and varied, wide-ranging book, written with force and vigor by someone with a distinctive style and point of view will provide hours of enjoyable reading for anyone interested in mathematics.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

This book is a biography of a famous problem, the problem of proving ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’. The original edition traced the problem from 2000 BC to 17th century France. Along the way we learn quite a bit about history, and just as much about mathematics. Underwood Dudley’s notes bring us up-to-date on recent attempts to solve the problem, including its recent proof.

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: The Mathematical Association of America; Rev Upd Su edition (August 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883854511
• ISBN-13: 978-0883854518
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,534,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good storytelling interpersed with mathematical history, March 27, 2000

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Problem (Spectrum) (Paperback)

Written as a concurrent reflection on the human race and the history of Fermat's "Last Theorem", this book can be downed in gulps like a cold beer on a hot day or slowly sipped like a fine wine. In either case, it will be savored. The author, whose writing style is often cantankerous but splendid, delivers much more than mathematics. While social and political commentary abound and sometimes dominate, Bell never loses his focus on the development of the problem. Which is some feat, considering it takes him over 200 pages before he gets to Fermat himself.
At times the tone is one of disgust:

" If the Babylonians were a bloody lot on occasion, the Asyrians surpassed them almost continuously in ruthless war and cold-blooded cruelty. It is impossible to find a human parallel for their unbridled ferocity; we have to go back to the carnivorous dinosaurs, long extinct, to match them" (Page 35)

" Visits to Paris showed him (Bachet) how the best people of the day lived, grossly overfed like prize hogs at a county fair, and fussily beribboned like professional streetwalkers, male and female, in the midst of seething swarms of starving beggars and diseased cripples draped in rotting rags." (Page 204)

at times ironic:

"They (Romans) were also fairly good at war until they degenerated. The great Julius Caesar, for example, in his campaign against Gaul exterminated a million nearly helpless men, woman and children, and enslaved that many more." (Page 193)

and sometimes subtly hilarious:

"In fact her (Cleopatra's) first notable conquest was Julius Caesar, who had got his start toward the top by submissive pederasty. Young Julius literally had begun at the bottom, and had risen like a rocket to love, fame and glory. At the age of eighteen, a handsome Roman legionnaire, he was willingly seduced by King Nicomedes of Bithynia." (Page 123)

Even the modern American Caesar, Douglas MacArthur, is the target of a barb.
A master of the language, Bell is one of the few mathematical commentators that can be read just for fun. Anyone with even a passing interest in mathematics can read this book for the sheer joy of it.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.