Joyeux anniversaire, Pierre de Fermat! Today is the French mathematician's 410th birthday. Fermat is best known as the originator or Fermat's Last Theorem, which consists of a deceptively ...
When British mathematician Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's last theorem in 1994, he ended a saga that had begun in the middle of the 17th century. But like a good storyteller, he left unanswered a ...
What begins as a simple puzzle about colored bead necklaces quickly reveals a powerful mathematical pattern. By exploring rotations, symmetry, and prime numbers, this story leads to one of the ...
Andrew Wiles devoted much of his entire career to proving Fermat's Last Theorem, the world's most famous mathematical problem. In 1993, he made front-page headlines ...
Like many math students, I had dreams of mathematical greatness. I thought I was close once. A difficult algebra problem in college kept me working late into the night. After hours of struggle, I felt ...