Fermat's Enigma

by Simon Singh

“The Devil and Simon Flagg” the Devil asks Simon Flagg to set him a question. If the Devil succeeds in answering it within twenty-four hours then he takes Simon’s soul, but if he fails then he must give Simon $100,000. Simon poses the question: “Is Fermat’s Last Theorem correct?” The Devil disappears and whizzes around the world to absorb every piece of mathematics that has ever been created in order to prove the Last Theorem. The following day he returns and admits defeat: “You win, Simon,” he said, almost in a whisper, eyeing him with ungrudging respect “Not even I can learn enough mathematics in such a short time for so difficult a problem. The more I got into it the worse it became. Non-unique factoring, ideals—Bah! Do you know,” the Devil confided, “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.”