This is a book about a relatively simple to understand maths problem that took over 350 years to be proved (or disproved). Author Simon Singh does a terrific job in taking us through those years until 1995 when it was cracked by a Cambridge academic. On the road to discovery, we learn about the origins of this puzzle, along with the personalities of the various people who took on this challenge.
The issue for the author is how to make a book about really, really hard sums, comparatively easy for the casual reader to understand. Singh takes on this task immensely well, keeping the truly difficult equations in the appendix, whilst having in the main text only the essential formulas. This keeps the book highly readable and the story moving at a good pace. Singh does a great job in bringing out the personalities of those involved in this historical adventure, as well as giving us a history of various mathematical concepts.
It might seem a little daunting or dry on the face of it but this is indeed very much an adventure book written for the mass market. Simon Singh writes in a way that never feels like he is talking down to the reader while attempting to explain some frankly baffling mathematical concept (there are also a few illustrations along the way that help explain things). A mathematical non-fiction historical adventure is an unusual genre but Singh writes very smoothly for a mathematician himself and has produced a very entertaining book.
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