FREE THE LAST THEOREM PDF Arthur C. Clarke,Frederik Pohl | 448 pages | 12 Jan 2011 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780007290024 | English | London, United Kingdom MathFiction: The Last Theorem (Arthur C. Clarke / Frederik Pohl) The Last Theorem Arthur C. Ranjit Subramanian, the protagonist in this science fiction novel, is a young Sri Lankan man who re discovers a short and elementary proof of Fermat's Last Theorem while enduring torture during an unjust imprisonment. The novel reads like a "classic" SF novel from the early latter half of the 20th Century, which is perhaps not surprising considering that its authors are two of the most famous authors from that period in the history of genre. The age of the authors does result in a few quaint anachronisms -- such as the The Last Theorem wife who has an advanced degree of her own but gives up her career to raise the kids and make eggs for her brilliant husband -- but I personally enjoyed the opportunity to read one more new novel written in this classic style. However, the authors do a surprisingly bad job with the mathematics, and repeatedly and unfairly defame Andrew Wiles' actual proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. The main underlying plot involves a plan by the great and advanced civilizations of the galaxy to destroy life on Earth before we can cause trouble for them. Throughout the novel, as other minor human plot lines are elaborated upon, we are reminded that the planned The Last Theorem is getting closer and closer. Other features of the story include the building of a space elevatorsports in space, religion primarily Hinduism and atheism, terrorism and "extraordinary rendition", the United Nations and another international organization which "peacefully" destroys their opponents' electronics with a nuclear blast. The Last Theorem primary mathematical content is the already mentioned "simple" proof of The Last Theorem Last Theorem which I will discuss further belowbut there are a few other features that deserve to be mentioned. Most interesting to me was the attempts of Subramanian to become a math professor. Since he was not an ideal student, and since all of his degrees are honorary ones that he received after becoming famous, he doesn't quite know how to do it. His initial failures at this and eventual success are an interesting glimpse of academia. Another mathematical subplot arises when Subramanian's youngest son who appears to be somewhat autistic impresses his father with his experimentation with Pentominos. The "Grand Galactics" are The Last Theorem as being interesting in mathematics, among other things, but not much is made of this as far as I could tell which surprised me And, there is a cute scene in which Subramanian impresses a young girl named Ada after Ada Lovelace with some mathematical "tricks" including The Last Theorem that allows him to state the exact combinatorial possibilities of The Last Theorem an unknown number of coins. Now, The Last Theorem me say a bit about Fermat's Last Theorem for those who may not know about this bit of real mathematical history. Many are also familiar with a common example of a right triangle which has sides of lengths 3, 4 and 5. So, as we see, there are positive, whole number solutions to this formula. But, what if the powers of two are replaced with higher powers, such as The Last Theorem, 4,or even higher? It does not seem at first that there is any reason to doubt that one could also find positive whole number solutions to those equations. However, inthe amateur The Last Theorem Pierre de Fermat The Last Theorem in the margin of a book he was reading that he had a mathematical proof that in fact there are no such solutions. Unfortunately, he did not tell us what this proof was. Moreover, for a very long time, mathematicians tried to prove this fact and were unable to find either a proof or a counter-example. During this period, the statement The Last Theorem quite famous and was frequently mentioned, not because it was particularly important but only because it seemed to be so challenging! Finally, inthe mathematician Andrew Wiles presented his proof of the "last theorem" at a conference in Cambridge. Although a small problem was found with the original proof, with the help of his former student, Richard Taylor, the problem was corrected and the theorem was at last proved. Unfortunately, the proof is not nearly The Last Theorem simple as the statement of the original conjecture. It depends on a lot of advanced mathematics, including the algebraic geometry of elliptic curves, which would certainly not have been among the tools available to Fermat. Most mathematicians now The Last Theorem to doubt that Fermat had a proof at all, but I The Last Theorem some small minority might believe that a simpler, elementary proof is still out. It is not unreasonable for the authors to suggest that a short proof still is out there waiting to be found. However, it is unreasonable of them to suggest that there is more wrong with Wiles' proof than The Last Theorem fact that Fermat couldn't possibly have come up with it. However, in the preface, in the text and in an appendix, they state incorrectly that the proof depends on steps that involve a computer and that it "cannot be read" by a human. I think they are simply repeating complaints that they have heard about some other high profile proofs and incorrectly applying them to FLT. There is a proof of the Four Color Theorem which depends on the use of computers to verify a large number of cases which cannot be checked by hand. And the classification of finite simple groups is a research program that is supposedly completed, although the proof has not yet been collected all in one place But, neither of these The Last Theorem apply to Wiles' proof of FLT! Moreover, the appendix states that one of the authors it doesn't say which believes that FLT is The Last Theorem undecideable This is a pretty serious accusation, and not one that should be made lightly. Their description of Wiles' proof is so confused that I suspect they do not understand it themselves. Really, the idea is not that complicated. But, Wiles' proved that The Last Theorem elliptic curves over the rationals are modular. Consequently, there cannot be any such x, y and z! This is not the only mathematical confusion present in the book The Last Theorem considering that it appears to be an insult to Wiles, I think it is the most serious problem. The lecture Subramanian gives on the infinitude of primes is -- at best -- unclear. I might think that they simply did not explain it well, except that their clear misconceptions everywhere suggest to me instead that they don't understand this The Last Theorem proof either. Also, their description of trapdoor codes completely misses the point, which is that given the number N that is a product of two very large primes it is possible to encrypt a message but not possible to decrypt the message unless the factors of the number are known. They suggest that the encryption could be achieved by adding the number N to the signal For my description of how these codes really work, see here. This novel was fun to read. It made me feel nostalgiac about the classic years The Last Theorem science fiction while still being current enough to seem new. However, I am troubled by the authors' apparent misconceptions, and so surprised that very little happens with the math that I think I must have missed something. Did you read this book and see an explicit connection made anywhere between FLT and the Grand Galactics? If so, let me know. Maybe this key plot point somehow got lost between the two authors? Contributed by Alex This is one more example of a mathematician proving an important result in prison. A short discussion of this topic was begun in my description of Ghost Dancer. Contributed by Andrew I was greatly disappointed by this book. The title and the mathematics implied don't connect to the story. It's just there to inform the reader that the main character is an uber-genius. Great, but does this really mean anything for the The Last Theorem Not really. Because of his proof he gets a professorship, a family, a government contract, awesome privileges and It doesn't move the alien plot at all. At the end, the whole book The Last Theorem meaningless. The main character and the aliens were two different stories and The Last Theorem didn't interact with each other, so what was the point? It's always fun to think that a "simple" solution exists for the FLT, but if that's going to be the title one should at least bother to make it matter. Fermat's Last The Last Theorem is famous because he didn't prove it. The title made you assume the FLT was important to the story in some way and they never provided the reader their proof, either. So maybe the title was apropos after all. I did find the binary finger counting trick to be entertaining, so I guess I got something out of it. Buy this work of mathematical fiction and read reviews at amazon. Note: This is The Last Theorem one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire The Last Theorem or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage. The Last Theorem - PathfinderWiki The Last Theorem is a treatise on the culture, philosophyand science of the Dominion of the Blackdisguised as one about mathematics.