Carlo Capararo Boeken

When Andrew Wiles of Princeton University announced a solution of Fermat's last theorem in 1993, it electrified the world of mathematics. After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year--he had already labored in solitude for seven years--to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh's book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles's work and of the star-, trauma-, and wacko-studded history of Fermat's last theorem. Fermat's Enigma contains some problems that offer a taste of the math, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the goofy side of mathematicians.

Recounts the history of prime numbers, (numbers divisible only by one and themselves), which has implications beyond pure mathematics. Euclid, Ramanujan, Odlyzko, and the formation of RSA encryption are discussed, as well as the state of contemporary research on the topic. Originally published: London: Fourth Estate, 2003.