A Quick Survey of the Last Two Millennia

In 1994, mathematician Andrew WilesWiles, Andrew, aided by his colleague Richard Taylor, forged the last link in an extensive chain of mathematical reasoning needed to resolve one of the most infamously difficult problems in all of mathematics. The history of this result, commonly referred to as Fermat’s Last Theorem after the seventeenth-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat,Fermat’s Last Theorem has all the hallmarks of an epic tale: an arduous quest spanning centuries and continents taken on by a legion of mathematicians; a resilient foe that bested many of the greatest minds for 300 years; and the classic template of human anguish, redemption, and then ultimate triumph.