Pierre de Fermat (17 August 1601 or 1607/8 - 12 January 1665) was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and an amateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his
adequality.
Known for :Number theoryAnalytic geometryFermat’s principleProbabilityFermat’s Last Theorem
Influences :François Viète
Pierre de Fermat, effectively invented modern number theory virtually single-handedly, despite being a small-town amateur mathematician. Stimulated and inspired by the “Arithmetica” of the Hellenistic mathematician Diophantus, he went on to discover several new patterns in numbers which had defeated mathematicians for centuries, and throughout his life he devised a wide range of conjectures and theorems. He is also given credit for early developments that led to modern calculus, and for early progress in probability theory. Fermat also proposed, among others, the cubic curve later known as the witch of Agnesi, named after Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799 AD), a versatile woman distinguished as a mathematician, linguist, philosopher and somnambulist. Thus, where to a large extent Descartes began with a locus and then found its equation, Fermat started with the equation and then studied the locus. These are the two inverse aspects of the fundamental principle of analytic geometry. Fermat’s work is written in Viete’s notation and thus has an archaic look when compared with Descartes’ more modern symbolism.
adequality.
Known for :Number theoryAnalytic geometryFermat’s principleProbabilityFermat’s Last Theorem
Influences :François Viète
Pierre de Fermat, effectively invented modern number theory virtually single-handedly, despite being a small-town amateur mathematician. Stimulated and inspired by the “Arithmetica” of the Hellenistic mathematician Diophantus, he went on to discover several new patterns in numbers which had defeated mathematicians for centuries, and throughout his life he devised a wide range of conjectures and theorems. He is also given credit for early developments that led to modern calculus, and for early progress in probability theory. Fermat also proposed, among others, the cubic curve later known as the witch of Agnesi, named after Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799 AD), a versatile woman distinguished as a mathematician, linguist, philosopher and somnambulist. Thus, where to a large extent Descartes began with a locus and then found its equation, Fermat started with the equation and then studied the locus. These are the two inverse aspects of the fundamental principle of analytic geometry. Fermat’s work is written in Viete’s notation and thus has an archaic look when compared with Descartes’ more modern symbolism.