Number theory. An approach through history from Hammurapi to Legendre (Q858628): Difference between revisions

In his ``approach through history'', André Weil goes through the results obtained by Fermat, Euler, Lagrange and Legendre that are still relevant for today's mathematicians, and explains how their work is related to modern developments like curves of genus \(1\), the group law on elliptic curves and infinite descent, quadratic reciprocity, binary quadratic forms, and Hasse's Local-Global principle. Its masterful exposition and the historical accuracy have made this a book which fully deserves its success. The first edition (1984) has been reviewed in Zbl 0531.10001.