42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A book about the math that Ms. Vos Savant doesn't understand, December 1, 1997
This review is from: The World's Most Famous Math Problem: The Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem and Other Mathematical Mysteries (Paperback)
Like many of us, there are some elements of mathematics that Ms. Vos Savant doesn't understand. Unfortunately, instead of investigating these subjects or asking questions of experts, the author concludes that there must be something wrong with the mathematics. Although this book purports to be about Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, it is really a description of all the things that are "wrong" in mathematics, including some comments on Wiles's work. This can make for some entertaining reading, like her argument against the imaginary number i, but it can also be quite annoying, like her incredibly disrespectful comment (under the heading "a possible fatal flaw [in Wiles's proof]") that Wiles ought to check and make sure that his "proof" doesn't also rule out solutions to the equation with exponent 2, since we know that there are solutions in this case. A big plus for this book is the evidence it provides for the relative unimportance of I.Q.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Come on, do you expect us to take you seriously?, September 10, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The World's Most Famous Math Problem: The Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem and Other Mathematical Mysteries (Paperback)
So, there's this thing, it's called math. Actually, it's called mathematician's math. In this kind of math, everything has to proven rigorously, nothing is taken for granted - all this to avoid fallacies in logic and paradoxes. This is the right way to do mathematics, at least from the modern point of view.
Physicists, they also need to use math. However, they're only interested in math to describe Nature. So they may not do everything rigorously - perhaps they extend the results of a theorem to a place where the hypotheses do not strictly hold, or say something is "intuitively obvious". The brilliant physicists are normally right, and many physicists are also great mathematicians.
Chemists (primarily physical chemists) use math too, since they need a way to describe whatever they're working on accurately. But they don't care about proof at all. They'll just use whatever works, and ignore all the theory. This is okay, except that they don't get a complete understanding of the underlying mathematics, and as such, don't know much about math.
Now, philosophers, they use mathematics and logic to try to bring validity to their arguments. The majority of them fail miserably, and end up stumbling all over their words. This isn't to say that all philosophers don't know what they're talking about - a few do, the best example being Bertrand Russell, who was a great mathematician and philosopher. But most philosophers that use math don't use it in the correct spirit.
Now, I have discovered a new low in mathematics. I'll call it "Savant mathematics", in honor of the person who originated it. In this book, she makes blatantly false statements about fundamental aspects of mathematics (for example, claiming that philosophical induction (not mathematical) is a valid method of mathematical proof, or that proof by contradiction is wrong - I know constructivists the latter is false but they're a minority of mathematicians) and, despite a lack of training in mathematics, claims that Wiles' proof may be wrong. Sure, the proof was incorrect, at first, but not for the reasons she claimed. She wouldn't even be able to understand why the proof was wrong!
It is simply appalling to me that she would dare make all these statements without knowing the least bit of mathematics. The fact that she had the nerve to confront Andrew Wiles, if not the entire mathematical community, without knowing a single iota about what they do, is simply wrong, and even more so for a person with her status in the public's eye.
I can only hope that no person takes this book seriously. If you want to learn about the incredible story of Fermat's Last Theorem and it's proof, I recommend you get some of the other books out there. The one I personally recommend is Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Enigma.
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44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Quickly produced and quickly forgotten, November 4, 1999
This review is from: The World's Most Famous Math Problem: The Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem and Other Mathematical Mysteries (Paperback)
This book was written hastily to cash in on the publicity surrounding FLT. It qualifies as something of a scam, since the author not only has no expertise in the area, but the book itself has little to do with the actual proof. It consists mainly of simple explanations of basic mathematical methods and traditional math problems. The book's short length is padded by extensive quotes from other books. For a much better book on the same topic, I recommend "Fermat's Enigma" by Simon Singh.
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