Pierre de Fermat is one of the greatest scientists in the history of France. His achievements include the creation of such works as the theory of probabilities and numbers, he is the author of outstanding theorems and the discoverer of a number of mathematical properties. From a very young age, his parents paid great attention to the education of his son and, most likely, this was what influenced the formation of a grandiose mind. Always calm and active, curious and strict, searching and finding - all this is Pierre Fermat. A short biography will help the reader to find out for himself all the most interesting about this mathematician, which is colossal in size.
Early stages
Pierre was born in France. He is one of the pioneers and creators of number theory, as well as analytic geometry.
For a long time they said that Pierre Fermat was born in 1595 in Toulouse, but by the middle of the nineteenth century in the city of Beaumont, a record was found in the archives, in which it was said that in the summer of 1601 a son was born to the city councilor Dominic Fermat and his wife Pierre. It is known that Dominic Fermat was a very respected person in the city. He was a leather merchant. Pierre spent his childhood with his parents, and when it came time to get an education, he left for Toulouse, the closest city with universities. A well-studied law on the university bench gave Pierre the opportunity to work as a lawyer, but the young man decided to switch to the service of the state. In 1631, Pierre was enlisted as councilor of the box office in the Parliament of Toulouse. At this time, Fermat was already married to the daughter of an adviser to the parliament in which he worked. His life was very quiet and calm. But thanks to him today, people studying mathematics can learn a lot of interesting information for themselves, which is truly invaluable. Even in the school curriculum, active attention is paid to the theme “Pierre Farm and its discoveries”.
Passion for history
In his youth, the future mathematician was famous as the finest connoisseur of history (especially antiquity), he was sought after by the publication of the classics of Greece. He left comments on the writings of Sinesug, Athenaeus, Polynus, Frontin, Theon of Smirn, made corrections to the texts of Sextus Empiricus. Many believe that he could easily leave his mark as an outstanding Greek philologist.
However, due to the fact that he chose a different path, light was seen by his ambitious studies. And so most people know that Pierre Fermat is a mathematician.
About his work during his lifetime, it became mainly known through the broad correspondence that Fermat conducted with other scientists. The collection of essays, which he tried more than once to compile, was never put into practice. Actually, this is a logical result with such an overload at the main job in court. During the life of Pierre, not one of the mass of his works was published.
Pierre Fermat: Discoveries in Mathematics
One of the first works in mathematics by Pierre Fermat was the renewal of two lost works of Apollonius, entitled On Flat Places. The majority of Pierre's enormous credit to science is seen by the majority in his introduction of infinitesimal quantities into analytical geometry. He took this crucial step in 1629. Also in the late twenties, Pierre Fermat found ways to find tangents and extrema. And already in 1636 the completely completed description of the method of finding was handed over to Mersenne, and anyone could get acquainted with this work.
Controversy with Descartes
In the years 1637-38, the French mathematician Pierre Fermat vigorously polemicized with the equally outstanding mathematician Rene Descartes. The controversy arose around the "Method of finding minima and maxima." Descartes did not fully understand the method and did not understand it, for this reason he criticized him unfairly. In the summer of 1638, Pierre Fermat sent Mersenne, for the transfer to Descartes, an updated and more detailed exposition of his method. His letter reflects his reserved character, because it is written in an extremely dry and calm manner, but at the same time there is some irony in it. His letter even contains a direct mockery of Descartes' misunderstanding. Fermat never once entered into a meaningless and unrestrained polemic, he constantly adhered to an even and cold tone. This was not an argument, but rather, the conversation was like a teacher talking with a student who did not understand something.
Area calculation system
Prior to Pierre Fermat, methods for finding squares were developed by the Italian Cavalieri. However, by 1642, Fermat discovered a way to find areas that are limited by any “parabolas” and “hyperbolas”. He managed to prove that the area of almost any unlimited figure can still have a finite value.
Curve straightening problem
One of the very first to begin studying the problem of calculating the lengths of arcs of curves. He managed to bring the solution of the problem to finding some areas. To calculate the area reduced all the problems on the curves. There was only one drop left in order to introduce a new and more abstract concept of “integral”.
In the future, the whole positive outcome of the methods for determining the "area" was in the search for the relationship with the "method of extrema and tangents." There is evidence that Fermat has already seen a clear relationship, but not one of his works reflects this point of view.
Unlike most of his associates in the case, Pierre de Fermat was a pure mathematician and never tried to explore other branches of science. It is probably for this reason that his most powerful contribution to all of mathematics is so deep and great.
About number theory
To this day, Fermat’s main contribution to mathematics is the creation of a completely new discipline - numerical theory. The scientist throughout his career was interested in arithmetic problems, which he sometimes thought up and made up himself. In the process of finding answers to the questions posed in the tasks, Fermat often discovered something completely new and unique. New algorithms and laws, theorems and properties - all this once formed the basis of number theory, which is known to every student today.
Contribution to the works of other scientists
Thus, Pierre Fermat discovered patterns for natural numbers and established them for centuries. Works on natural numbers are called "arithmetic theorems." One of them, for example, is the famous “small theorem”. Subsequently, she served Euler as a special case for his work. It is also known that it was the work of Pierre Fermat that set the basis for the Lagrange theorem on the sum of 4 squares.
Fermat's Theorem
Of course, most of the works of Pierre stands out his great and powerful theorem. For many years and even decades, it made the greatest mathematicians “puzzle”, and even after it was published in 1995, new and very diverse methods of proving it still come to departments with a mathematical bias at many universities in the world.
Although Fermat left only brief summaries of his works and fragmentary information, it was his discoveries that gave impetus to many other outstanding geniuses of mathematics. In his honor was named one of the most prestigious and oldest lyceums in France - Lyceum named after Pierre Fermat in Toulouse.
The death of a scientist
During his most active work in the field of mathematics, Fermat is moving quite rapidly in the court case. In 1648, Pierre became a member of the House of Edicts. Such a high position testified to the highest position of the scientist.
In Castres, where Fermat became an edict, he dies when leaving for a regular court session. Death came to a mathematician at the age of 64. The eldest son of the scientist undertook to convey the works of his father to people and released a number of his studies.
That was Pierre Farm. His biography was saturated, and life left a mark on all times.
The works of this giant mathematics cannot be overestimated and underestimated, because they laid a solid foundation for many researchers. Pierre Fermat, whose photo (portraits) are given in the article, had a firm character, which all his life helped him achieve his goals.