Aczel: in one book he calculated that people have a better chance of finding a soulmate than of winning in Las Vegas Debra Gross Aczel |
Amir Aczel was a mathematician who launched a second career as a best-selling author, most notably of Fermat’s Last Theorem, about how an enduring enigma of mathematics was ultimately solved. He spent years as a professor in Alaska and Massachusetts and wrote textbooks on maths and statistics before discovering a talent for explaining the world of science and numbers to ordinary readers
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Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem |
He gained widespread acclaim in 1996 with Fermat’s Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem. The problem had been one of the great unsolved mysteries of mathematics since a French jurist and amateur mathematician, Pierre de Fermat, wrote an equation in the margin of a book, followed by the words: “I have discovered a truly marvellous proof of this, which, however, the margin is not large enough to contain.”
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Amir D. Aczel, a mathematician who launched a second career as a best-selling author, most notably of “Fermat’s Last Theorem,” about how an enduring enigma of mathematics was ultimately solved, died Nov. 26 in Nimes, France. He was 65.
Amir D. Aczel, author of ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’ and other best sellers, dies -
Source: The Independent