Sunday, April 27, 2014

Who is Pierre de Fermat?

From Wolfram Research we manage to get a beginning overview on Fermat's life. Pierre de Fermat [pyer duh fer-mah]is best known as a French mathematician, however what may be less known is that he was only an amateur mathematician1.Fermat was primarily a lawyer who did work in mathematics on the side.  A nice beginning piece of early life history for Fermat comes from the credible University of St. Andrews. Fermat was born on August 17, 1601 in the French city Beaumont-de-Lomagne.  His father, Dominique Fermat, was a merchant selling cattle and wheat and made a very good living while his was not definitely known. Along with Pierre de Fermat, Dominique also had a brother and two sisters.


1 Fermat's work specifically in number theory is what earned him most of his recognition.

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