| eBook ISBN: | 978-1-4704-5751-8 |
| Product Code: | SPEC/91.E |
| List Price: | $55.00 |
| MAA Member Price: | $41.25 |
| AMS Member Price: | $41.25 |
| eBook ISBN: | 978-1-4704-5751-8 |
| Product Code: | SPEC/91.E |
| List Price: | $55.00 |
| MAA Member Price: | $41.25 |
| AMS Member Price: | $41.25 |
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Book DetailsSpectrumVolume: 91; 2017; 308 pp
2017 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. What Eric Temple Bell calls The Last Problem is the problem of proving 'Fermat's 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. 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 civilization, and a history of our civilization's 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.
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Table of Contents
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Articles
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Introduction
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Prospectus: Unfinished Business
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The Far Beginnings: Babylon and Egypt
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Philosophical Interlude
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Alexander’s Contribution
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Cleopatra’s Gift
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From Euclid to Hypatia
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Dating—Collapse—Recovery
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The Last Euclidean: Bachet (1581–1638)
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Mathematician and Jurist—Fermat
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The Catalyst: Mersenne (1588–1648)
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Friends and Others
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From the Correspondence of Fermat
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An Age to Remember
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The Jurist
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Aftermath (A final note by D. H. Lehmer)
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2017 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. What Eric Temple Bell calls The Last Problem is the problem of proving 'Fermat's 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. 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 civilization, and a history of our civilization's 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.
-
Articles
-
Introduction
-
Prospectus: Unfinished Business
-
The Far Beginnings: Babylon and Egypt
-
Philosophical Interlude
-
Alexander’s Contribution
-
Cleopatra’s Gift
-
From Euclid to Hypatia
-
Dating—Collapse—Recovery
-
The Last Euclidean: Bachet (1581–1638)
-
Mathematician and Jurist—Fermat
-
The Catalyst: Mersenne (1588–1648)
-
Friends and Others
-
From the Correspondence of Fermat
-
An Age to Remember
-
The Jurist
-
Aftermath (A final note by D. H. Lehmer)
