Pierre de Fermat: One of the Most Prominent Mathematicians

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Pierre de Fermat is one of the most prominent mathematicians whose works became a significant part of the modern calculus. Other famous scientists of his time found Fermat’s theories to be useful in various fields of study. One of the most interesting facts about Fermat is that he offered a theorem (known today as Fermat’s Last Theorem) without giving proof to it, and it took centuries for other mathematicians to solve this issue.

Pierre de Fermat came from Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France, where he was born at the beginning of the seventeenth century. His family was wealthy, which gave him an opportunity to enter the University of Orleans that he finished in 1623 with a diploma in civil law. Although his primary activity was the service in one of the French High Courts, Fermat spent a lot of time on developing mathematical theories.

Fermat never published many of his works. Instead, he was sending letters to other scientists engaged in mathematics describing his findings or opinions (Wilson 96). For instance, Fermat was actively corresponding with to Blaise Pascal, another prominent mathematician, with whom they made much to set the base for the probability theory (Splinter 426). There is an extensive archive of letters left showing ideas shared by these two scientists that were formulating new methods of probability solution algorithms step by step (Todhunter 7).

There is a peculiar biographical fact about Fermat’s conflict with Rene Descartes – another famous mathematician, the author of Geometry. Fermat spoke very critically of Descartes’s Optics, writing that the former had to become more intelligent and offer new insight on the topic (Descartes 39). Descartes, in turn, said that Fermat’s Analytical Geometry contained wrong rules regarding methods of determining tangents and plagiarized ideas from his Geometry.

The conflict was lasting for several years until Descartes offered Fermat to find a curve tangent as a challenge quest. Fermat used a method mentioned in his work, although it was described rather vaguely. As a result, it was admitted that the method of Fermat was better since it was universal and gave an opportunity to solve similar problems, even though its description lacked clarity and structure.

The issue with the poor logic of methods’ proof or the lack of it whatsoever was actually one of the most significant issues with Fermat’s works. One of his greatest achievements – Fermat’s Last Theorem, one of the most popular rules in mathematics used as a part of the numbers theory – did not have proof. Fermat wrote this theorem on one of the margins of Arithmetics by Diophantus of Alexandria, stating that a full proof would take too much space to be written on (Krantz and Parks 309).

Centuries went by as many scientists tried to find proof for Fermat’s Last Theorem. However, it was found only in 1994 by Sir Andrew Wiles, who stated that his primary idea was to try and think in a way Fermat would do it (Raussen and Skau 30). Nevertheless, even today, mathematicians keep sending their propositions on solving this issue, which shows the great importance of works left by this extraordinary scientist.

Currently, Fermat’s theories make up an essential part for students attending calculus classes in higher education institutions. His works became useful in other fields like optics in physics, where analytical geometry is used. Moreover, a collection of letters from Fermat to other scientists is a valuable resource for understanding how the mathematical community functioned during the times when encyclopedic knowledge was a common matter among educated people.

Works Cited

Descartes, René. Selected Correspondence of Descartes. Edited by Jonathan Bennett, Early Modern Philosophy, 2017.

Splinter, Robert. “Fermat, Pierre de (1601-1665).” Illustrated Encyclopedia of Applied and Engineering Physics. Vol. 1, 2017.

Krantz, Steven George, and Harold R. Parks. A Mathematical Odyssey: Journey from the Real to the Complex. Springer, 2014.

Raussen, Martin, and Christian Skau. “Interview with Abel Laureate Sir Andrew J. Wiles.” Newsletter of the European Mathematical Society, no. 101, 2016, pp. 29-38.

Todhunter, Isaac. A History of the Mathematical Theory of Probability: From the Time of Pascal to that of Laplace. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Wilson, Robin. “17th-Century French Mathematics.” The Mathematical Intelligencer, vol. 38, no. 1, 2016, p. 96.

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Pierre de Fermat: One of the Most Prominent Mathematicians

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