Description: Shortlisted for Rhone Poulenc General Prize for Science Books 1998.
Around 1637, the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat wrote that he had found a way to prove a seemingly simple statement: while many square numbers can be broken down into the sum of two other squares - for example, 25 (five squared) equals nine (three squared) plus 16 (four squared) - the same can never be d...
Description: Shortlisted for Rhone Poulenc General Prize for Science Books 1998.
Around 1637, the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat wrote that he had found a way to prove a seemingly simple statement: while many square numbers can be broken down into the sum of two other squares - for example, 25 (five squared) equals nine (three squared) plus 16 (four squared) - the same can never be done for cubes or any higher powers. This book provides an account of how Fermat's solution was lost, the consequent strug