Fermat, << fehr MAH, >> Pierre de (1601-1665), a French mathematician, founded modern number theory. He also helped invent analytic geometry and lay the foundation for calculus. He proved mathematically that the law for the refraction (bending) of light results from light’s following the path that takes the shortest time. Fermat and the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal invented the theory of probability.
The ancient Greeks knew there are many whole-number solutions of the equation x 2 + y 2 = z 2 (for example, 32 + 42 = 52). But in 1637, Fermat wrote in the margin of a book that there is no positive whole-number solution of x n + y n = z n if n is greater than 2. Fermat noted that he had found a wonderful proof of this fact, but that there was not enough room to write it down. No proof of “Fermat’s last theorem” was found for more than 350 years. But in 1993, British mathematician Andrew Wiles announced that he had proved the theorem. Wiles published his complete proof, with certain corrections, in 1995.
Fermat was born on Aug. 17, 1601, in Beaumont-de-Lomagne, near Toulouse. He practiced law in Toulouse and studied mathematics for pleasure. He died on Jan. 12, 1665.
See also Wiles, Andrew.
