Paulo Ribenboim

This is a selection of expository essays by Paulo Ribenboim, the author of such popular titles as "The New Book of Prime Number Records" and "The Little Book of Big Primes". The book contains essays on Fibonacci numbers, prime numbers, Bernoulli numbers, and historical presentations of the main problems pertaining to elementary number theory, such as for instance Kummer's work on Fermat's Last Theorem. The essays are written in a light and humorous language without secrets and are thoroughly accessible to everyone with an interest in numbers.

In the second half of the last century, Kummer introduced "local" methods in his study of Fermat's last theorem. Hensel constructed the p-adic numbers and proved the so-called "Hensel lemma." Kurschak formally introduced the concept of a valuation of a field, and Ostrowski, Hasse, Schmidt, Krull, and others developed the theory. These classical valuations play a central cental role in the study of number fields and algebraic functions of one variable. The present book is one of the first texts in English devoted to the beautiful theory of classical valuations. The book is self-contained and up-to-date, and proofs are given in full detail. Thus, it will be an invaluable resource for graduate students and research mathematicians.

Préface: Les questions arithmétiques en théorie des corps sont séduisantes. Cet ouvrage a pour but d'attirer l'attention des étudiants sur ce genre de problèmes, souvent abordables avec peu de moyens techniques. Le choix des sujets a été dicté par le souci de conserver au texte un caractère à la fois élémentaire et actuel. L'arithmétique des corps de nombres algébriques a été mise à l'écart, étant déjà l'objet d'un livre de P. Samuel dans cette même collection. MM. Tran Ngoc An, Alexandre Azar et Mme Danielle Gondard ont rédigé des notes préliminaires sur mon cours à la Faculté de Sciences de Paris, tenu en 1969/70. Mme Gondard s'est encore chargée de la lecture et de la vérification soigneuse du manuscript. J'exprime ici mes remerciements pour cette collaboration.

The book summarizes the actual result of related topics to prime numbers. For example, what is the "best" function for approximate the gap between prime, or the approximation about how many primes are less than number x. It describes the actual primality testing algorithms and many other problems related to primes.

vii, 162 p. 23 cm

This book is intended for amateurs, students, and teachers. The author presents partial results, which could be obtained with exclusively elementary methods. The proofs are given in detail, with minimal prerequisites. The Epilogue is a serious attempt to render accessible the strategy of the recent proof of Fermat's last theorem, a great mathematical feat.

The Guinness Book made records immensely popular. This book is devoted, at first glance, to present records concerning prime numbers. But it is much more. It explores the interface between computations and the theory of prime numbers. The book contains an up-to-date historical presentation of the main problems about prime numbers, as well as many fascinating topics, including primality testing. It is written in a language without secrets and is thoroughly accessible to everyone with some mathematical education. This new book has an improved and smoother presentation.

"A deep understanding of prime numbers is one of the great challenges in mathematics. In this book, fundamental theorems, challenging open problems, and the most recent computational records are presented in a language without secrets. The impressive wealth of material and references will make this book a favorite companion and a source of inspiration to all readers."--BOOK JACKET.