<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre de Fermat</span>

Pierre de Fermat

<p><b>Pierre de Fermat</b> (<small about="#mwt17" typeof="mw:Transclusion" data-mw="{&quot;parts&quot;:[{&quot;template&quot;:{&quot;target&quot;:{&quot;wt&quot;:&quot;IPA-fr&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;./Template:IPA-fr&quot;},&quot;params&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:{&quot;wt&quot;:&quot;pjɛʁ də fɛʁma&quot;},&quot;2&quot;:{&quot;wt&quot;:&quot;lang&quot;}},&quot;i&quot;:0}}]}">French:<span>&nbsp;</span></small><span class="IPA"><a href="/en/Help:IPA/French" title="Help:IPA/French" class="wl">[pjɛʁ də fɛʁma]</a></span>; between 31 October and 6 December 1607<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-birth_1-1"><a href="#cite_note-birth-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;" data-mw-group="lower-alpha"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[lower-alpha 1]</span></a></span> – 12 January 1665) was a <a href="/en/French_people" title="French people" class="wl">French</a> <a href="/en/Mathematician" title="Mathematician" class="wl">mathematician</a> who is given credit for early developments that led to <a href="/en/Infinitesimal_calculus" title="Infinitesimal calculus" class="mw-redirect wl">infinitesimal calculus</a>, including his technique of <a href="/en/Adequality" title="Adequality" class="wl">adequality</a>. In particular, he is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the greatest and the smallest <a href="/en/Ordinate" title="Ordinate" class="mw-redirect wl">ordinates</a> of curved lines, which is analogous to that of <a href="/en/Differential_calculus" title="Differential calculus" class="wl">differential calculus</a>, then unknown, and his research into <a href="/en/Number_theory" title="Number theory" class="wl">number theory</a>. He made notable contributions to <a href="/en/Analytic_geometry" title="Analytic geometry" class="wl">analytic geometry</a>, <a href="/en/Probability" title="Probability" class="wl">probability</a>, and <a href="/en/Optics" title="Optics" class="wl">optics</a>. He is best known for his <a href="/en/Fermat's_principle" title="Fermat's principle" class="wl">Fermat's principle</a> for light propagation and his <a href="/en/Fermat's_Last_Theorem" title="Fermat's Last Theorem" class="wl">Fermat's Last Theorem</a> in <a href="/en/Number_theory" title="Number theory" class="wl">number theory</a>, which he described in a note at the margin of a copy of <a href="/en/Diophantus" title="Diophantus" class="wl">Diophantus</a>' <i><a href="/en/Arithmetica" title="Arithmetica" class="wl">Arithmetica</a></i>. He was also a lawyer<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="#cite_note-4" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[3]</span></a></span> at the <i><a href="/en/Parlement" title="Parlement" class="wl">Parlement</a></i> of <a href="/en/Toulouse" title="Toulouse" class="wl">Toulouse</a>, <a href="/en/France" title="France" class="wl">France</a>.</p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">French mathematician and lawyer</div>
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<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1066479718" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}</style><div class='mobile-collapse'><header class="mobile-collapse-header mobile-collapse-btn"><b>Quick facts: Pierre de Fermat, Born, Died, Education, Know...</b> <span class='arrow'>▼</span></header> <table class="infobox biography vcard mobile-collapse-element"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="font-size:125%;"><div class="fn" style="display:inline">Pierre de Fermat</div></th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span class="mw-default-size"><a href="/en/File:Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg/220px-Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="299" data-file-height="400" data-file-type="bitmap" height="294" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg 2x" alt="Pierre_de_Fermat.jpg"></a></span></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th><td class="infobox-data">Between 31 October and 6 December 1607<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-birth_1-0"><a href="#cite_note-birth-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;" data-mw-group="lower-alpha"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[lower-alpha 1]</span></a></span><br><div style="display:inline" class="birthplace"><a href="/en/Beaumont-de-Lomagne" title="Beaumont-de-Lomagne" class="wl">Beaumont-de-Lomagne</a>, <a href="/en/Kingdom_of_France" title="Kingdom of France" class="wl">France</a></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Died</th><td class="infobox-data"><span style="display:none">(<span class="dday deathdate">1665-01-12</span>)</span>12 January 1665<br>(aged 57)<br><div style="display:inline" class="deathplace"><a href="/en/Castres" title="Castres" class="wl">Castres</a>, <a href="/en/Kingdom_of_France" title="Kingdom of France" class="wl">France</a></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Education</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/University_of_Orléans" title="University of Orléans" class="wl">University of Orléans</a> (LL.B., 1626)</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Known<span>&nbsp;</span>for</th><td class="infobox-data">Contributions to <a href="/en/Number_theory" title="Number theory" class="wl">number theory</a>, <a href="/en/Analytic_geometry" title="Analytic geometry" class="wl">analytic geometry</a>, <a href="/en/Probability_theory" title="Probability theory" class="wl">probability theory</a><br><a href="/en/Folium_of_Descartes" title="Folium of Descartes" class="wl">Folium of Descartes</a><br><a href="/en/Fermat's_principle" title="Fermat's principle" class="wl">Fermat's principle</a><br><a href="/en/Fermat's_little_theorem" title="Fermat's little theorem" class="wl">Fermat's little theorem</a><br><a href="/en/Fermat's_Last_Theorem" title="Fermat's Last Theorem" class="wl">Fermat's Last Theorem</a><br><a href="/en/Adequality" title="Adequality" class="wl">Adequality</a><br>Fermat's "<a href="/en/Difference_quotient" title="Difference quotient" class="wl">difference quotient</a>" method<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span><br>(<a href="/en/List_of_things_named_after_Pierre_de_Fermat" title="List of things named after Pierre de Fermat" class="wl">See full list</a>)</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><b>Scientific career</b></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Fields</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/en/Mathematics" title="Mathematics" class="wl">Mathematics</a> and <a href="/en/Law" title="Law" class="wl">law</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Influences</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/François_Viète" title="François Viète" class="wl">François Viète</a>, <a href="/en/Gerolamo_Cardano" title="Gerolamo Cardano" class="wl">Gerolamo Cardano</a>, <a href="/en/Diophantus" title="Diophantus" class="wl">Diophantus</a></td></tr><tr style="display:none"><td colspan="2">
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Pierre de Fermat 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 at the Parlement of Toulouse, France. 