Fermat’s Last Theorem. Simon Singh

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Название Fermat’s Last Theorem
Автор произведения Simon Singh
Жанр Прочая образовательная литература
Серия
Издательство Прочая образовательная литература
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780007381999



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      SIMON SINGH

      

      

      

       Fermat’s Last Theorem

      THE STORY OF A RIDDLE THAT CONFOUNDED THE

      WORLD’S GREATEST MINDS FOR 358 YEARS

      

Copyright

      William Collins

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

      

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in paperback by Fourth Estate in 2002 (reprinted 4 times)

      First published in Great Britain in 1997 by Fourth Estate

      

      Copyright © 1997 by Simon Singh

      Foreword copyright © 1997 by John Lynch

      

      Line illustrations by Jed Mugford

      

      The right of Simon Singh to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

      

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9781841157917

      Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007381999 Version: 2017-08-14

       Dedication

      In memory

      of Pakhar Singh Birring

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

       Dedication

       3 - A Mathematical Disgrace

       4 - Into Abstraction

       5 - Proof by Contradiction

       6 - The Secret Calculation

       7 - A Slight Problem

       Epilogue - Grand Unified Mathematics

       Keep Reading

       Appendices

       Suggestions for Further Reading

       Index

       About the Author

       Also by the Author

       About the Publisher

       Foreword

      We finally met across a room, not crowded, but large enough to hold the entire Mathematics Department at Princeton on their occasions of great celebration. On that particular afternoon, there were not so very many people around, but enough for me to be uncertain as to which one was Andrew Wiles. After a few moments I picked out a shy-looking man, listening to the conversation around him, sipping tea, and indulging in the ritual gathering of minds that mathematicians the world over engage in at around four o’clock in the afternoon. He simply guessed who I was.

      It was the end of an extraordinary week. I had met some of the finest mathematicians alive, and begun to gain an insight into their world. But despite every attempt to pin down Andrew Wiles, to speak to him, and to convince him to take part in a BBC Horizon documentary film on his achievement, this was our first meeting. This was the man who had recently announced that he had found the holy grail of mathematics; the man who claimed he had proved Fermat’s Last Theorem. As we spoke, Wiles had a distracted and withdrawn air about him, and although he was polite and friendly, it was clear that he wished me as far away from him as possible. He explained very simply that he could not possibly focus on anything but his work, which was at a critical stage, but perhaps later, when the current pressures had been resolved, he would be pleased to take part. I knew, and he knew I knew, that he was facing the collapse of his life’s ambition, and that the holy grail he had held was now being revealed as no more than a rather beautiful, valuable, but straightforward drinking vessel. He had found a flaw in his heralded proof.

      The story of Fermat’s Last Theorem is unique. By the time I first met