These anecdotes, while not directly related to the content covered, provide depth to the story that mathematics alone cannot do. Archimedes was killed in Rome after being so involved in a geometry problem that he didn’t realize a soldier was telling him to leave. Galois was killed at the age of 20 in a duel, despite inventing nearly all of modern abstract algebra. His books are based on the theme that scientific advances, whether it be the proof of an unsolved problem or quantum cryptography, can be traced back many centuries to a wide plethora of people.Įach of these people has their own unique story, along with their contributions to the field. Singh, first and foremost, can be viewed as a historian. This is Simon Singh’s second book that I have read, the first being The Code Book. Simon Singh masterfully simplifies the material and makes it accessible to non-experts. I found the book to be a fascinating dive into what real mathematics research looks like and the recent 20th century advances in modern number theory. Called Fermat’s Last Theorem, the infamous question was only put to rest recently, in 1993 by the British mathematician Andrew Wiles.įour years later, Simon Singh’s 1997 book “Fermat’s Last Theorem” was published, detailing how 20th century number theory was pieced together to solve the tough problem. Four centuries ago, brilliant judge and mathematician Pierre de Fermat posed a mathematical riddle that would puzzle and stump the greatest mathematicians of the past centuries.
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