| Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) | ||||
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Fermat had numerous educational
experiences. He studied at
the Franciscan Monastery as a child, and later attended the University
of Toulouse. Later, Fermat
studied and received his degree in Civil Law from the University of
Orleans.
During his first post in parliament, Fermat interacted with
several mathematicians, such as Marvin Mersenne Gille Personne de
Roberval, and Ètienne
Pascal.
He made conjectures concerning the work of Galileo and developed
a method of finding the quadrature of curves.
In addition, he made others aware of his works, Method
for Determining Maxima and Minima and Tangents to Curve Lines, and An
Introduction to Plane and Solid Loci (Young, 1998).
During this same time period, René Descartes developed similar
ideas concerning analytic geometry.
Although Descartes started his work earlier on this topic,
Fermat’s works arrived in Paris first.
Therefore, a huge controversy developed over the topic and how it
was presented.
This scandal damaged Fermat's reputation in the mathematical
world.
In 1651, a plague left Fermat
ill and isolated in Toulouse. During
this time period, he developed a keen interest in number theory.
His dedication to number theory led to the work known today as
Fermat’s Last Theorem. It
states, "if n is any whole number and p any prime, then np
- n is divisible by p" (Young, 1998, p. 175).
Fermat’s proof was lost and recently Andrew
Wiles proved the theorem in a paper entitled Modualr Elliptic Curves and Fermat’s Last Theorem.
This paper was published in 1995 in the Annals
of Mathematics. This is
one of the greatest mathematical achievements of the twentieth century. Fermat and Pascal’s
correspondence started after Pascal asked Fermat’s advice on a game of
chance problem in 1654. Their solutions of
probability problems lead to the development of the probability theory
we know today (see
brief history of
probability).
Although Pascal and Fermat’s correspondence laid the
foundations for differential and integral calculus, Pascal did not
express Fermat’ interest in number theory.
To his dismay, many other mathematicians including John Wallis
and William Brouncker had no interest in the topic.
Therefore, he started to work with optics and went on the study
the laws of reflection and refraction. Due to his continued periodic illness after the plague of 1651,
he ended all of his mathematical contacts.
Fermat died on January 12, 1665. Additional Links: Picture reproduced from MacTutor History of Mathematics archive with permission. |
