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After reading the book, would I have some understanding of the actual proof, or learn mostly the historical context around it? Note: I have felt deceived afte
by alok-g 13y ago
After reading the book, would I have some understanding of the actual proof, or learn mostly the historical context around it?
Note: I have felt deceived after reading Godel's Proof [1] since the authors claimed in the preface to have given an outline of the complete proof in the last chapter but did not (it was grossly incomplete). I am still indebted to the book though for teaching me how to think about pure mathematics.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371/ http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814...
- ColinWright 13y agoA popular science book about Fermat's Last Theorem will certainly not give you any kind of real understanding of the proof. It will give you some historical context. It is a difficult proof, and some of the underlying basic concepts are already deep in their own right, deeper than will be covered in an advanced undergraduate degree. There are some attempts at higher level overviews on the web, and they are slowly getting fleshed out.