French lawyer and magistrate at the Parlement of Toulouse who pursued mathematics as an amateur, corresponding with contemporaries such as Pascal and Mersenne rather than publishing formally. His work with Blaise Pascal on a gambling problem in 1654 is usually credited as founding probability theory, and Fermat's Little Theorem is still central to number theory and modern cryptography. He is best remembered for a note he wrote in the margin of his copy of Diophantus's Arithmetica around 1637, claiming to have a remarkable proof that no three positive integers can satisfy a to the n plus b to the n equals c to the n for any integer n greater than two, a proof he said the margin was too narrow to contain. No such proof was ever found among his papers, and the claim, Fermat's Last Theorem, went unproven for 358 years.
Facts
BirthplaceBeaumont-de-Lomagne, Kingdom of France 2 Death PlaceCastres, Kingdom of France 2 Nationality / Culture Defining ContributionFounded probability theory with Pascal; Fermat's Little Theorem in number theory; the marginal conjecture known as Fermat's Last Theorem, unproven for 358 years. 2 Notable WorkMarginal annotations to Diophantus's Arithmetica (c. 1637); correspondence with Pascal (1654) 2 Disputed
Birth DateSome sources give 1601; the discrepancy traces to confusion between Fermat and an older half-brother of the same name who died in infancy. 1607 is MacTutor's and most modern scholarship's preferred date. Birth YearSome sources give 1601; see the birth-date note. Connections
Associated With
Source MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
Source MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
Conjectures Posed
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica, Mathematics
Additional Source Wikipedia: Fermat's Last TheoremHistory section
In Branch
Source MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
Source MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
Namesake Of
Derived from the theorem's own name (unambiguous possessive-token match to exactly one live mathematician entity, w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill)
Derived from the theorem's own name (unambiguous possessive-token match to exactly one live mathematician entity, w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill)
Derived from the theorem's own name (unambiguous possessive-token match to exactly one live mathematician entity, w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill)
Derived from the theorem's own name (unambiguous possessive-token match to exactly one live mathematician entity, w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill)
Proofs Credited
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: France, nationality there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Pierre de Fermat
WikipediaLead section, gender referenceQuote, Lead section, gender reference
Pierre de Fermat was a French magistrate, polymath, and mathematician credited for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality.
2. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
University of St Andrews, School of Mathematics and StatisticsAssociated With: Probability, https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Pascal/
In correspondence with Fermat he laid the foundation for the theory of probability. This correspondence consisted of five letters and occurred in the summer of 1654.
Associated With: Number Theory, https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Fermat/
Fermat is best remembered for this work in number theory, in particular for Fermat's Last Theorem.
View the Source Wikipedia: Fermat's Last Theorem
Wikimedia FoundationConjectures Posed: Fermat's Last Theorem, History sectionQuote, Conjectures Posed: Fermat's Last Theorem, History section
Around 1637, Fermat wrote his Last Theorem in Latin in the margin of his copy of the Arithmetica next to Diophantus's sum-of-squares problem
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