The World's Most Famous Math Problem

by Vos Savant, Marilyn

• ISBN13: 9780312106577
• ISBN10: 0312106572
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-11-01
• Publisher: Griffin
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

June 23, 1993. A Princeton mathematician announces that he has unlocked, after thousands of unsuccessful attempts by others, the greatest mathematical riddle in the world. Dr. Wiles demonstrates to a group of stunned mathematicians that he has provided the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (the equation x" + y" = z", wherenis an integer greater than 2, has no solution in positive numbers), a problem that has confounded scholars for over 350 years. Here in this brilliant new book, Marilyn vos Savant, the person with the highest recorded IQ in the world explains the mathematical underpinnings of Wiles's solution, discusses the history of Fermat's Last Theorem and other great math problems, and provides colorful stories of the great thinkers and amateurs who attempted to solve Fermat's puzzle.

Author Biography

Marilyn vos Savant's "Ask Marilyn" column is featured in Parade magazine every Sunday. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword
One of the Hottest Stories in the History of Math
Archimedes Thinking in the Bathtub	p. 1
Pierre de Fermat Writing in the Margin	p. 2
Andrew Wiles Lecturing at Cambridge University	p. 3
The Five-Point Test	p. 5
Dr. Wiles's Experience	p. 8
Another Point to Ponder	p. 11
Euclidean Versus the New Non-Euclidean Geometries	p. 13
Doubling Cubes, Trisecting Angles, and Squaring Circles	p. 17
Pierre de Fermat and the Last Theorem
Pierre de Fermat	p. 20
Fermat's Last Theorem	p. 21
Learned Attempts at Proof	p. 22
Unlearned Attempts at Proof	p. 25
Who Is a Crank?	p. 26
Wiles's Proof in Not-Very-Plain English	p. 30
Unanswered Questions	p. 31
Proofs and Puzzles to Ponder
What's a Theorem?	p. 32
What's a Proof?	p. 34
Faulty "Proofs"	p. 36
Impractical Proofs	p. 38
Branching Proofs	p. 39
Philosophical Proofs	p. 42
What Is Mathematical Truth?	p. 44
Mathematical Mysteries, Solved and Unsolved
The Parallel Postulate	p. 46
Aristotle's Wheel	p. 48
Zeno's Achilles	p. 50
Zeno's Arrow	p. 52
Zeno's Stadium	p. 53
Kepler's Spheres	p. 55
Goldbach's Conjecture	p. 55
The Twin Prime Conjecture	p. 55
Another Prime Conjecture	p. 56
What Comes Next
Why It All Matters	p. 57
Why Wiles's Proof Isn't as Satisfying as It Could Be	p. 60
A Possible Fatal Flaw	p. 62
A Matter of Credit	p. 62
Why This Proof Wasn't Fermat's Proof	p. 63
To All the Unknown Genius in the World	p. 64
The Search for Other Proofs	p. 67
Fermat's Other Unproved Theorem	p. 68
Appendix: Karl Rubin's Highlights of Andrew Wiles's Proof	p. 73
For Further Reading	p. 77
About the Author	p. 79
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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