The Last Problem (Spectrum)

About this book

What Eric Temple Bell calls the last problem is the problem of proving Fermats Last Theorem which Fermat wrote in the margin of a book almost 350 years ago. The original text of The Last Problem traced the problem from 2000 BC to 17th century France. Along the way we learn quite a bit about history and just as much about mathematics. Underwood Dudleys notes bring us up-to-date on recent attempts to solve the problem - for the latest printing he has added a three page addendum about its recent proof by Andrew Wiles. This book fits no categories. It is not a book of mathematics: it is a biography of a famous problem. Pages go by without an equation appearing. It is both a history of number theory and its place in our civilisation and a history of our civilisations relationship with mathematics. This rich and varied wide-ranging book written with force and vigor by someone with a distinctive style and point of view will provide hours of enjoyable reading for anyone interested in mathematics.