Written by Bandit | 21 January 2010

One of the Bandit's all time favorite books.  Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh delves into the life and times of a French amateur mathematician from 17th century.  The book creates a wonderful foundation of mathematical history from the Greeks to current day mathematicians.  One of my favorite discussions was the introduction of the concept of a perfect number by the Greeks.  A perfect number is a number where the sum of it's factors equals the number. 

The first perfect number is 6, e.g. factors 3,2,1.  The next perfect number is 28, e.g. 14,7,4,2,1.  It always amazes me how some mathematicians are able to leap from the known into the depths of the unknown, sometimes with ease and create new frontiers.