This dialog acts as another nice "play within a play" along with transitioning chapters too. Near the end of it there's a part that goes like this: "You say the parts are 'independent'...". I think there's irony, self reference, and harmonized meaning all in a little section of dialog.
I was so excited to see Fermat's Last Theorem that I had a hard time concentrating through most of the dialog. About 15 years ago, I watched a PBS show about some guy who had recently proved Fermet's Last Theorem with very advanced topology and computers. I ended up spending the next few weeks trying to use Diff-Eq level skills to find a proof. Of course, I never even got close to my goal. (I'm not sure that Fermeat's Last Theorem was solved when this book was written. The PBS show I watched was in the late 1990s or early 2000s.)
I was so excited to see Fermat's Last Theorem that I had a hard time concentrating through most of the dialog. About 15 years ago, I watched a PBS show about some guy who had recently proved Fermet's Last Theorem with very advanced topology and computers. I ended up spending the next few weeks trying to use Diff-Eq level skills to find a proof. Of course, I never even got close to my goal. (I'm not sure that Fermeat's Last Theorem was solved when this book was written. The PBS show I watched was in the late 1990s or early 2000s.)
Looks like the video was from 1996. This is 45 minute documentary video about it:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...#