MATHEMATICIAN

Pierre de Fermat

1601 - 1665

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Pierre de Fermat (; French: [pjɛʁ də fɛʁma]; 17 August 1601 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the greatest and the smallest ordinates of curved lines, which is analogous to that of differential calculus, then unknown, and his research into number theory. He made notable contributions to analytic geometry, probability, and optics. He is best known for his Fermat's principle for light propagation and his Fermat's Last Theorem in number theory, which he described in a note at the margin of a copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Pierre de Fermat is the 16th most popular mathematician (down from 14th in 2019), the 58th most popular biography from France (up from 71st in 2019) and the 2nd most popular French Mathematician.

Pierre de Fermat is most famous for his work in number theory. He is also known for his work on the Fermat's Last Theorem, which states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2.

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Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, Pierre de Fermat ranks 16 out of 1,004. Before him are Omar Khayyam, John Forbes Nash Jr., Bernhard Riemann, Hypatia, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, and Al-Biruni. After him are Bertrand Russell, Jacob Bernoulli, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Henri Poincaré, Pierre-Simon Laplace, and David Hilbert.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1601, Pierre de Fermat ranks 2. Before him is Louis XIII of France. After him are Anne of Austria, Baltasar Gracián, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha, Alonzo Cano, Tugay Bey, John Eudes, Charles Philip, Duke of Södermanland, and Simon de Vlieger. Among people deceased in 1665, Pierre de Fermat ranks 1. After him are Nicolas Poussin, Philip IV of Spain, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, Elisabetta Sirani, César, Duke of Vendôme, Stefan Czarniecki, Charles II, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Andreas Cellarius, and Mary of Jesus of Ágreda.

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In France

Among people born in France, Pierre de Fermat ranks 58 out of 6,770. Before him are Édouard Manet (1832), Octave Mirbeau (1848), Henri Becquerel (1852), Eugène Delacroix (1798), Stendhal (1783), and Michel de Montaigne (1533). After him are Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1520), Philip IV of France (1268), Napoleon II (1811), Louis XVII of France (1785), Gustave Eiffel (1832), and Cardinal Richelieu (1585).

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Among MATHEMATICIANS In France

Among mathematicians born in France, Pierre de Fermat ranks 2. Before him are Blaise Pascal (1623). After him are Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717), Henri Poincaré (1854), Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749), Joseph Fourier (1768), Évariste Galois (1811), François Viète (1540), Pope Sylvester II (938), Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789), Urbain Le Verrier (1811), and Abraham de Moivre (1667).

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