Pierre de Fermat

French mathematician and lawyer / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Pierre de Fermat (French: [pjɛʁ də fɛʁma]; between 31 October and 6 December 1607[lower-alpha 1] – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the greatest and the smallest ordinates of curved lines, which is analogous to that of differential calculus, then unknown, and his research into number theory. He made notable contributions to analytic geometry, probability, and optics. He is best known for his Fermat's principle for light propagation and his Fermat's Last Theorem in number theory, which he described in a note at the margin of a copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica. He was also a lawyer[3] at the Parlement of Toulouse, France.

Quick facts: Pierre de Fermat, Born, Died, Education, Know...
Pierre de Fermat
Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg
BornBetween 31 October and 6 December 1607[lower-alpha 1]
Died(1665-01-12)12 January 1665
(aged 57)
EducationUniversity of Orléans (LL.B., 1626)
Known forContributions to number theory, analytic geometry, probability theory
Folium of Descartes
Fermat's principle
Fermat's little theorem
Fermat's Last Theorem
Adequality
Fermat's "difference quotient" method[1]
(See full list)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics and law
InfluencesFrançois Viète, Gerolamo Cardano, Diophantus
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