number theory

An overview of great mathematical problems and what drives mathematicians to solve them.

After teenage Sri Lankan Ranjit Subramanian, a math prodigy, reconstructs and publishes the famous last theorem of Pierre de Fermat, the powerful aliens called the Grand Galactics respond to the flash of nuclear explosions and decide to exterminate humanity just as Earth's superpowers develop a new, nonlethal, way of promoting global peace.

This book offers an overview of the development of numbers, discussing their expression in mathematics and measurement and including profiles of visionaries who saw order amidst the numbers.

A meditation on the beauty and meaning of numbers, exploring mathematical equations, describing some of the mathematical discoveries of the past millennia, and pondering philosophical questions about the relation of numbers to the universe.

Examines the historic quest to find a proof for seventeenth-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat's Last Theorem, discussing the life and discoveries of Fermat; eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century attempts to solve the mathematical riddle; and the work of Princeton professor Andrew Wiles who announced in 1993 that he had found an answer.

Explores patterns in nature and in numbers through games and projects using codes, algebra, and arithmetic.