2. Pierre de Fermat Facts: DOB: August 17, 1601 Birthplace: Beaumont de Lomagne, France Death: January 12, 1665 Death place: Castres, France Occupation: Mathematician Best Known Work: Fermat’s Last Theorem
3. Fermat’s Rise Pierre de Fermat first started out as a lawyer and considered math a hobby. He never wanted to publish any of his theorems, but the ones he did, he did so anonymously. His link with Marin Mersenne gave Fermat his international reputation. He also rarely provided proofs with his theorems. Fermat’s favorite area of math was the development of modern number theories which led to Fermat’s Last Theorem.
4. Fermat’s Last Theorem Fermat’s last theorem states: xn + yn = zn has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y, and z when n> 2. Afterwards Fermat wrote: “I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.” In 1993 Andrew J. Wiles provided the first proof.
5. Fermat’s Additional Contributions Fermat is considered to be one of the “Fathers of Analytic Geometry” along with Rene Descaretes. One of the founders of the probability theory along with Blaise Pascal. Provided a law on light travel and wrote a few papers about calculus.
