Authors:
Ribenboim's presentation of attempts to solve Fermat's Last Theorem sheds new light on the possibilities and power of the language of mathematics
This book is intended for amateurs. All results presented were obtained with exclusively elementary methods; proofs are given in detail with minimal prerequisites
Original features are the ten interludes, devoted to important topics of elementary number theory, thus making this book self-contained
The Epilogue is a serious attempt to render accessible the strategy of Wiles recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a great mathematical feat
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Reviews
From the reviews:
MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS
"The history of elementary approaches to Fermat is very rich indeed, and Ribenboim has arranged these approaches in a way that makes them accessible to interested readers without extensive mathematical backgrounds…both readable and fairly comprehensive. This book would likely be of great interest to an enthusiastic undergraduate with a basic knowledge of rings and fields. In addition to describing the history of one of the great problems in number theory, the book provides a gentle and well-motivated introduction to some important ideas in modern number theory…any reader who spends a few hours with this book is guaranteed to learn something new and interesting about Fermat’s last theorem."
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
Paulo Ribenboim
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Fermat’s Last Theorem for Amateurs
Authors: Paulo Ribenboim
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/b97437
Publisher: Springer New York, NY
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eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media New York 1999
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-387-98508-4Published: 11 February 1999
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4757-7286-9Published: 14 March 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-0-387-21692-8Published: 21 January 2008
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 407
Topics: Number Theory