''Fermat's Last Theorem'' is a

popular science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

book (1997) by

Simon Singh Simon Lehna Singh, (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author and theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include ''Fermat's Last Theorem'' (in the United States titled ''Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve ...

. It tells the story of the search for a proof of

Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive number, positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than . The cases ...

, first conjectured by

Pierre de Fermat Pierre de Fermat (; ; 17 August 1601 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is recognized for his d ...

in 1637, and explores how many mathematicians such as

Évariste Galois Évariste Galois (; ; 25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by Nth root, ...

had tried and failed to provide a proof for the theorem.Review of ''Fermat's Enigma'' by Andrew Bremner (1998), .. Despite the efforts of many mathematicians, the proof would remain incomplete until 1995, with the publication of

Andrew Wiles Sir Andrew John Wiles (born 11 April 1953) is an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is best known for Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, proving Ferma ...

' proof of the Theorem. The book is the first mathematics book to become a Number One seller in the United Kingdom, whilst Singh's documentary ''The Proof'', on which the book was based, won a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

in 1997. In the United States, the book was released as ''Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem''. The book was released in the United States in October 1998 to coincide with the US release of Singh's documentary ''The Proof'' about

Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is a proof by British mathematician Sir Andrew Wiles of a special case of the modularity theorem for elliptic curves. Together with Ribet's theorem, it provides a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem. Both ...

References

Books by Simon Singh Popular mathematics books 1997 non-fiction books Fermat's Last Theorem English-language non-fiction books Fourth Estate books {{numtheory-stub