Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 261
 YASMH February 7, 2010
Joseph T. Reinckens II (Dallas, Texas)
YET ANOTHER SINGH MASTERFUL HISTORY. I have enjoyed a number of Singh's books on the history of science, so when I saw this I bought it immediately. I was not disappointed.
I don't really understand his details about elliptic equations, modular forms, etc., nor do I have any particular interest either in understanding such materials or advanced math. But as a historical treatment the book is much more about people than maths. Like Singh's books about the history of science, this details the trials and tribulations and real-world problems of people involved in the quest, such as historical prejudice against females in academia, funding problems, and even religious and political persecution resulting from *math* opinions! It also provides an interesting "behind-the-scenes" view of academia.
 Fermat's Last Theorem January 31, 2010
Sam Adams (Minnesota. USA)
This is a book of flashbacks. The main story is Wiles' eventual proof of a conjecture which implies the truth of Fermat's "Last Theorem". The flashbacks provide background for understanding in a very elementary way what ideas were used in the proof, and who else contributed to essential ideas beneath and within the proof. But the flashbacks often go beyond this purpose, and this gives the book the feel of being expanded to fill enough pages for a book. The filler in this case, however, has real value in itself as popular mathematics, but as a whole the book reads like a series of mathematical tangents, at least until later chapters when the drama of Wiles' final work on the proof shows, I think, the significance that rigorous proof has to mathematics. A narrative structure that didn't try to dramatize and flash back, which was linear and introduced Wiles at the end of the book instead of using him as a hook for the entire narrative, would have made a better book.
Incidentally, the story of Galois as told in this book would make an excellent film. There is a book The French Mathematician: A Novel, by Tom Petsinis, based on Galois' life. I have not read it.
 Number Theory for Amateurs October 29, 2009
Peter Geraghty (San Francisco CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've dipped into a lot of books for "the general reader" about mathematics. I've hardly finished any of them, not because I'm not interested in math, but because I would get bogged down in.. in what? The mathematics, of course. For those of you who are still haunted by Mr. Shepherd back in high school and still want to know why he spluttered and his eyes popped out when he was writing equations on the board, then this would be a great book for you. There's the human interest story; Andrew Wiles sweating bullets for months because his solution, on which he had worked for seven years, to a 350 year old problem, was falling apart. There's historical romance; eccentric mathematicians and their passions. And by golly, there's mathematics, delivered so smoothly that I hardly broke a sweat over the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture.
This is a beautifully put together book that is a pleasure to read.
Simply Magnificent! September 18, 2009
Youssef Ragab
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book is about the history of one of the most outstanding problems in the history of mathematics namely; Fermat's last theorem. Fermat's famous theorem can be understood by middle school pupils but it's proof has persistently eluded history's most powerful minds for over 350 years. Singh's master piece follows Fermat's theorem from its very roots some 2000 years before the birth of Fermat to its final proof by Andrew Wills in 1993. Singh literally transport's the reader from ancient Greece, to third century Alexandria, to seventeenth century France, to second world war Europe, to the boots of Andrew Wills in pursuit of this unique theorem. Three centuries of rich history are beautifully woven into a thrilling tale. The book covers a wide assortment of very interesting topics including; Pythagoras and his secret society, Euclid and his elements, Fermat and his legacy, Euler and his attempts, women in mathematics, Hilbert and his problems, Turing and his machines, Wills and his determined struggle and much more all in clear and vivid narration readily accessible to the general reader. The book establishes a tender balance between daunting detail and frustrating superficialism; an impressive task considering the highly complicated mathematics included. The author gives readers a new perspective to the world of mathematics. All said, this is one of the best popular science books I ever read. It gripped my attention from the moment I flipped its front cover to the moment I put it down a couple of days later. Simply magnificent!
A great read for mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike September 10, 2009
RocketMonkey (New York, NY)
Simon Singh is among the very best science non-fiction writers. Though I am interested in the underlying subject matter, Mr. Singh's treatment of the material never fails to draw the reader in, regardless of their level with the underlying components.
At the heart of this story is an amazingly simple equation (which I will not state here). Its a testament to the beauty of mathematics, that something so simple could be quite so complicated. My hats off to Andrew Wiles for proving the theorem, it is surely an event for the ages. And under Simon Singh's careful direction, this story turns epic.
Anyone with a passing appreciation to mathematics owes themselves a read of this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 261
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