Rating: 
Summary: an uninspired account of Fermat's Last Theorem
Review: This book knits together mathematics from the Pythagorean theorem of ancient Greece to Frey's 'joke' of 1984 like threads of a tapestry--each thread interesting in its ownself. But the excitement of the hunt! That's what keeps you turning the pages. I could scarcely put the book down until I saw the whole thing: how Andrew Wiles solved the problem, using each thread to weave an incredibly insightful solution. A great book.
Rating: 
Summary: By the Numbers
Review: This is an exceptional book because the author does a great job in laying out to the layman how the incredibly difficult solution to this simple looking equation was achieved in terms most could understand. The bulk of the book is kind of a history of number theory in which the author gives mention to many great feats in mathematics that had to be achieved before the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem could be devised. It really amplifies the the words of Sir Isaac Newton, "If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants".
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