Fermat’s Last Theorem is a mathematical enigma that has stumped mathematicians for hundreds of years. According to Andrew Wiles, “The definition of a good mathematical problem is the mathematics it generates rather than the problem itself.” (Singh 163) Pierre de Fermat, (see diagram one) a seventeenth-century French civil servant and judge and amateur mathematician first introduced it. His greatest love was number theory. (http://www-groups.dcs.st- and.ac.uk/-history/mathematicians/Fermat.html) Number …showed first 75 words of 3036 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3036 total…you know, not even the best mathematicians on other planets- all far ahead of yours- have solved it? Why there’s a chap on Saturn- he looks something like a mushroom on stilts- who solves partial differential equations mentally; and even he’s given up!” said the Devil. (Poorten 201-6) But it took Andrew Wiles more than a day to solve Fermat's Last Theorem and take a part in a fascinating piece of mathematical history.