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Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem Paperback – October 20, 1996

by Amir D. Aczel (Author)

49 customer reviews

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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.

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

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Product Details

Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; First 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: 1.6 pounds
Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,826,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #597 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Pure Mathematics > Number Theory
- #1382 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > History
- #373834 in Books > Reference

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Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars

5 star		31%
4 star		29%
3 star		18%
2 star		18%
1 star		4%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

an uninspired account of Fermat's Last Theorem

By A Customer on November 1, 2000

Format: 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.

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30 of 36 people found the following review helpful

OK, But Not the Best Book on Fermat's Last Theorem

By A Customer on July 13, 1999

Format: Paperback

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.

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39 of 48 people found the following review helpful

On the Right Track but Flawed

By Kindle Customer on May 16, 2002

Format: 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.Read more ›

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

A quick read mathematical history of Fermat's Last Theorem

By Thomas J. Wagner on February 14, 1999

Format: Paperback

I had this book sitting around the house for more than a year before picking it up yesterday. Once started, I could hardly put it down and finished it today. This is an entertaining read for the person more interested in mathematical history than a true mathematician (but what mathematician reads or writes about the history of mathematics anyway?) I might challenge one or two historical references, but the anecdotes about ancient mathematicians represent the true charm of this book. A quick, easy, enjoyable read.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Misses the target

By Charles Miller on March 20, 2004

Format: Paperback

Someone who wants to report events in a complex technical field to laypersons has two choices. First, attempt to explain the content in nontechnical language. Second, concentrate on the personages involved and help us relate to them as human beings. Aczel fails on both counts. He barely even attempts to cover the technical issues involved. Readers will come away from this book knowing virtually nothing about the mathematics entailed in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, other than that it builds on topics developed over thousands of years by many contributors. He can hardly be faulted for this, since the math required for understanding the proof is extremely dense and well beyond the capacity of any but graduate-level mathematicians.
It is on the personal level that Aczel really fails. His descriptions of most of the mathematicians covered read as if they had been lifted from a poorly-written encyclopedia. He glosses over them and their work so lightly that we are left completely unsatisfied. The question is, "Why?" He could have extended the book beyond its scant 137 pages and given us more detail about the players and explained some of the simpler mathematics. This would have produced a much better book.
The reason why this book gets three stars, instead of one, is its coverage of the Taniyama-Shimura-Weil-Serre controversy. This is actually interesting and reasonably well-written. If this had been excerpted and placed in a Sunday supplement, it would have been an admirable effort. The net is that if you want to know anything about the mathematics, or details about the people, look elsewhere. If you only want to know the barest outline of what all the fuss is about, this will suffice.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Excellent!

Published 2 months ago by Michel Verdaguer

GREAT WEEKEND READ

great weekend read on an outstanding subject, really great writer, one of three books from AZCEL

Published 4 months ago by Daniel Starnes

Better than expected

Read this for a calculus extra credit assignment. It was actually a good book. Covers a lot of material in a short amount of space in an organized and easy-to-follow way. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Bonnie Fleming

Buy This Book

This is a wonderful book. I am still reading it because I keep going back to review things. The history of mathematics is fascinating. Who could have expected that?

Published 13 months ago by Norma Frank

Comprehensive and well written.

Well written and a comprehensive view of the cast of characters involved in the proof over the centuries. Their history ranges from millennia before Fermat to the present.

Published 14 months ago by paul rowny

Four Stars

Any book by Amir D. Aczel is to my liking

Published 17 months ago by Karl Mach

Great book

Fermat's Last theorem (or conjecture) said that there was no three positive numbers a,b,c where n was greater than 2. a^n + b^n = c^n where n> 2. You can find out more in wiki. Read more

Published on April 22, 2013 by Francisco R. O.

MIsses the point

The idea, I thought, was to bring new light to the process of finding the solution to Fermat developed. Read more

Published on April 7, 2013 by Gonzalo E. Mendez

Exceptional and Entertaining Book

I think this was what everyone was hoping for when vos Savant's book on Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem came out. Read more

Published on December 31, 2012 by David Milliern

Broad but Disjointed Coverage

Aczel attempts to convey the mystery and history of theoretical mathematics in this book around Fermat's Last Theorem. The book itself is a short and relatively easy read. Read more

Published on December 16, 2012 by Edward J. Barton