Documentary about Fermat's Last Theorem

@ 2009-03-14 by João Paulo Pizani Flor

Some time ago I read a book, borrowed from a friend of mine, about Fermat’s Last Theorem. It’s a VERY famous result in Mathematics not only for its relevance, but for the time it took for a proof to be found. Since the first time Pierre de Fermat wrote down his last “theorem” in the 1600’s until the day that Andrew Wiles proved it in 1994, almost 400 years have gone by. Some 400 epic years, though, in which the most brilliant mathematicians tried, and failed, to prove an assertion that seemed so simple…

For those who wish to know this story better, there’s a fantastic documentary by the BBC (world’s best TV station) about it. This documentary is from the series “Horizon”, about science and technology. The documentary is mainly about the man who finally proved the theorem, and explains the subject from Andrew’s point of view, from his childhood dream. The mathematical concepts are explained in an extremely EASY and captivating way.

I downloaded this documentary from the Internet, but for legal reasons, I can’t tell you exactly where to download it. I can’t tell you that you must go to this address and search for “BBC Horizon Fermat’s Last Theorem”. I can’t tell you that the downloaded video has a good quality ;)