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The story of Fermat’s Last Theorem

Article  in  Resonance · March 1999

DOI: 10.1007/BF02838730

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Shailesh Shirali
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 BOOK ⎜ REVIEW

The Story of mathematician. As such, they often inspire

new and rich areas of mathematics. For
Fermat’s Last Theorem instance, much of algebraic number theory
was born from attempts to solve two great
Shailesh A Shirali problems – Fermat’s last theorem (or FLT, as
it is widely known), and the problem of
Fermat’s Last Theorem generalizing the law of quadratic reciprocity.
Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Non-Euclidean geometry provides another
Mathematical Problem
such example; it was born from the attempt to
Amir D Aczel
(Viking, 1996)
prove the parallel postulate. This means that
problems, in addition to possessing intrinsic
interest, also provide the historian with a
ready vehicle for writing about the history of
Fermat’s Enigma
mathematics.
The Epic Quest to Solve the
World’s Greatest Mathematical
But in the case of FLT the difficulties of
Problem
Simon Singh
writing a complete historical account would
(Walker and Company, 1997) seem much greater; it becomes necessary to
reach far back into history. Consider the
following list of mathematicians whose work
How does one go about writing a book about in some way lies ‘behind’ the proof in 1993/4
the ‘World’s Greatest Mathematical Pro- of FLT by Andrew Wiles : Pythagoras, Euclid,
blem’’? Presumably one must start at the very Archimedes, Diophantus, Fibonacci, Pacioli,
beginning. But where do the beginnings lie? Tartaglia, Cardano, Descartes, Pascal, Fermat
How far back in time does one have to go? (of course!), Euler, Lagrange, Galois, Abel,
Cauchy, Fourier, Gauss, Dirichlet, Dedekind,
Problems, declared Hilbert in a famous Kummer, Cantor, Riemann, Lobachevsky,
address (1900), are the life blood of mathe- Bolyai, Hilbert, Poincare, Mordell, the
matics; and following this declaration he Bourbakis, Hecke, Taniyama, Shimura, Weil,
presented a list of 23 problems that was to Lang, Grothendieck, Deligne, Langlands,
have considerable influence on the Serre, Faltings, Frey, Ribet, Mazur, Taylor,
development of mathematics in the decades Wiles. Whew! – a long list! In what way have
to come. To back up Hilbert’s claim with case all these individuals been connected with
studies is an easy task. The history of FLT? The beginnings of number theory go
mathematics shows that problems have an back to the Greeks. It is in the Pythagorean
extraordinary way of firing the imagination – school that one first sees the human
of the student as well as the established fascination with number per se and the belief

RESONANCE ⎜ February 1999 81

 BOOK ⎜ REVIEW

that ‘number is all’; from Euclid come the la Vallee Poussin of the prime number
first instances of proofs that are fully modern theorem, towards the end of the 19th century.
in conception – ‘proof by contradiction’ – and Meanwhile non-Euclidean geometry is born
from Diophantus comes the first study of (Bolyai, Lobachevsky), the study of elliptic
equations in integers, the topic now referred functions is initiated (Gauss, Jacobi, Abel),
to as ‘Diophantine equations’. 1 To Fibonacci and the idea of countable infinities (Cantor).
goes the credit of importing algebra, What a lot of rich drama lies behind these
trigonometry and the decimal numeration developments! Then comes Poincaré with
system from India and Arabia into Europe. his amazing outpouring of ideas in diverse
Then comes the story of how cubics and fields, including that of addition of points on
quartics came to be solved by the Italians – an elliptic curve (giving rise to a finitely
Tartaglia, Cardano and Ferrar. Shortly later generated abelian group). This later inspires
the link between geometry and algebra is the famous conjecture by Mordell which then
forged by Descartes, Pascal and Fermat, and has to wait a half-century for its proof by
the beginnings of algebraic geometry are laid; Faltings. Then comes the conjecture of
and from Fermat come new ideas and an Taniyama and Shimura, connecting modular
entirely new level of sophistication in dealing forms with elliptic curves. This is shown in
with problems in number theory – the idea of the 1980’s to imply FLT (Frey, Ribet).
descent. Then comes Euler, to whom so much Finally, the conjecture is proved for a certain
in general is due(!); group theory, from class of elliptic curves (Wiles, with the help of
Lagrange and Abel; Galois theory; the Taylor), and this is enough to prove FLT.
integration, by Gauss, of complex numbers What a rich and tangled story! Alongside the
into number theory and into the mainstream main line of the story are numerous human
of mathematics; shortly later the birth of stories: prizes for a correct proof of FLT; the
algebraic number theory (through the work Wolfskehl prize, worth 100000 marks, whose
of Gauss, Kummer, Dedekind,...); the value later is reduced temporarily to nil thanks
pioneering use of complex variables in num- to the runaway inflation of the 1920’s;
ber theory (Dirichlet, Riemann), which innumerable false proofs – 621 false proofs
culminates in the proof by Hadamard and de received in 1908 alone! Added to this is the

1
It is not out of place here to mention the strong interest in India in such equations. The problem of finding
solutions in integers to the linear equation ax + by = c was treated in detail by Aryabhata (5th century) and
Bh a skar I (7th century). The equation which later came to be known as ‘Pell’s equation’ (incorrectly, as
it is now known) received considerable attention from Brahmagupta (7th century) and Bh skar II (12th
century). This is the problem of finding positive integers x for which Nx2+1 is a square, N being a given
integer. Bh skar found an ingenious and beautiful general solution to the problem. For N = 61 the smallest
solution is given by him as x = 226153980(!). The interested reader should refer to the text by Varadarajan
(see suggested reading).

82 RESONANCE ⎜ February 1999

 BOOK ⎜ REVIEW

strange story of Wiles and his solitary and spans a huge interval in time. The book has
extraordinary seven-year battle with FLT, clearly been written with the lay reader in
following a style reminiscent of medieval mind, and the author certainly succeeds in
times and quite at variance with the way conveying the vastness and depth of the story.
mathematics tends to be done today. It is ‘A delightfully simple and brief book, part
hard to capture or to describe in adequate detective chase and part mathematical
terms the magnitude of Wiles’ achievement. popularization’; ‘Readable and enjoyable’,
In the foreword to Simon Singh’s book, John claim the blurbs at the back of the book; and
Lynch writes, ‘To Andrew Wiles [FLT] was indeed this is so.
... nothing less than his life’s ambition. When
he first revealed a proof in that summer of The only part of the book which may jar on
1993, it came at the end of seven years of the reader (it did have that effect on me) is
dedicated work on the problem, a degree of one of the ‘human interest’ stories, titled The
focus and determination that is hard to Lie by Aczel. This deals with the genealogy
imagine. Many of the techniques he used had and naming of the Taniyama–Shimura
not been created when he began ... . In a sense, conjecture and involves no less a mathemati-
reflected [Mazur], it turned out that everyone cal personage than André Weil. However the
was working on Fermat, but separately and case built up so dramatically by Aczel does
without having it as a goal ... . What [Wiles] not seem quite as clear and unambiguous as
had done was to tie together once again areas he makes it out to be. It might have been
of mathematics that had seemed far apart. wiser for the author to have underplayed the
His work therefore seemed a justification for role of this controversy and to have been
all the diversification that mathematics had more tentative. However this does not detract
undergone since the problem had been stated.’ from the essential value of the book. To the
It may be mentioned here that Wiles was serious student the mathematical content will
awarded the ‘IMU Silver Plaque’ at the seem disappointing; but this is inevitable,
International Congress of Mathematicians in given the difficult nature of the subject matter.
August 1998. This is a ‘custom-made’ tribute
which the International Mathematics Union It is curious that two books on FLT should
made specially for Wiles. appear in the market at nearly the same time,
and that they should be written in so similar
Amir Aczel has undertaken such a historical a style. Many of the comments noted above
study in his book. In each section of the book apply to Simon Singh’s book as much as they
he presents a historical episode together with do to Aczel’s book. However Singh does a far
the mathematical concepts involved. Most of better job than Aczel. The descriptions are
the individuals whose names feature above more full and satisfying (Singh’s book is twice
find mention in the book, which therefore as thick as Aczel’s), and this is true for the

RESONANCE ⎜ February 1999 83

 BOOK ⎜ REVIEW

historical accounts as well as the descriptions fortunate in having acquired copies (reviewer
of mathematical concepts. Also, Singh (wisely, copies!) of them.
in my opinion) avoids any mention of the
controversy referred to above. Overall, both The interested reader should also refer to the
books succeed in conveying a sense of why article by C S Yogananda, ‘Fermat’s Last
mathematicians ‘do’ mathematics, and why Theorem – a Theorem at last!’ in Resonance,
the subject is so very exciting to them; but Volume 1, Number 1, 1996.
while Aczel’s book is good, Singh’s book is
excellent, and is very warmly recommended Suggested Reading
to those who have an interest in mathematics
and its history. (It may not be out of place to V S Varadarajan. Algebra in Ancient and Modern Times,
mention here that Simon Singh and John TRIM series, Hindustan Book Agency, 1997.
Lynch of the BBC have produced a television
film on the story of FLT. The film is just as
Shailesh A Shirali, Rishi Valley School, Chittoor
good as the book.) I immensely enjoyed District, Rishi Valley 517 352, Andhra Pradesh, India.
reading the two books and consider myself

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84 RESONANCE ⎜ February 1999

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