On the history of Fermat's last theorem: fresh views on an old tale

摘要

Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (FLT), completed in 1994, was a landmark of late twentieth century mathematics. It also attracted a great deal of attention among both the media and the general public. Indeed, not every day a mathematical problem is solved more than 350 years after it was first posed, and not every day the work of a pure mathematician makes it to the front page of the New York Times.rnThe media coverage of Wiles' work on FLT offered to the nonmathematical public an unprecedented opportunity to become acquainted with the arcane world of research in number theory. Doubtlessly, Simon Singh took the lead in this popularization effort when presenting his BBC TV program (in collaboration with John Lynch) and his best-seller Fermat's Enigma. The cover of this book described the history of FLT as "the epic quest to solve the world's greatest mathematical problem."