Feud of Great Mathematicians

1. Descartes vs.
Fermat
Analytic Geometry and Optics
Prepared by:
Bohol, Jhoanna Marie O.
Falcasantos, Kreanne L.

2. BIBLIOGRAPH
Y

3. Pierre de Fermat
Dates of Birth and Death:
(¤) 17 August 1601 in Beaumont-de-Lomagne
nearby Montaubon, Gascogne,
France
(y) 12 January 1665 in Castres, France

4. Family Data:
Pierre de Fermat had a Basque origin. His
parents were Dominique Fermat, second
consul of the city of Beaumont-de-Lomagne,
and Francoise de Cazelneuve. The father
was
a
wealthy
leather
merchant.
Pierre had a brother and two sisters.
In about mid-thirties, Fermat married
Louise du Long. Fermat had a happy family
life. His two daughters became nuns, his
son Samuel published his father's opera.

5. Education:
Probably, Pierre attended the local school
run by the Franciscans. After having
finished his studies at the Universities
of Toulouse and Bordeaux (between 1625 and
1630)
he
was
awarded
with
the
Baccalaureate in Jurisprudence at the
University of Orleans in 1631.
In
Bordeaux
Fermat
started
his
mathematical research. In 1629 he could
not
finished
his
reconstruction
of
Apollonius' of Perga (262-190 BC) De
planis locis. He wrote his most important
publication about Maxima and Minima.

6. Professional Career:
As from 1631, Fermat was a lawyer in the city
parliament (“Conseilleur de la Chambre des
Requetes de Parlement"). Since that time he
added the “de"to his name. In 1648 he became
Royal advisor in Toulouse, since 1652 he was at
the criminal court.
The very fact that Fermat was very talented in
humanities and languages can be observed from
his correspondence.
In our context, Fermat's correspondence with
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) (from
July to October 1654) is important, because it
is considered as the beginning
of the foundation of the mathematical theory of
probability. Other colleagues, with some of
whom Fermat had a correspondence, were Jean
Beaugrand (ca.1590-1640), Pierre de Carcavi
(1600-1684), Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695)and
Marin Mersenne (1588-1648).

7. Professional Career:
Fermat is considered as the greatest
French Mathematician of the 17th century,
in spite of the fact that he was only a
“Hobby
Mathematician".
He
became
particularly famous for his “Fermat's Last
Theorem", about which it is still unknown,
whether a solution has been found.
His correspondence with Blaise Pascal
brought Fermat into the atmosphere of the
non-official Academie des Sciences, which
existed around the Abbe Marin Mersenne
before the real start of the Academie des
Sciences
in
1665.
The
correspondence
Fermat-Pascal
treats
especially
the
problems of game of chance. Both found
solutions by different methods. Therefore,
Fermat together with Pascal, initiated the
theory for probability.

8. Publications:
1.
Varia opera mathematica... Accesserunt
selectae
quaedam
eiusdem
epistolae
(Toulouse
1679;
Berlin
1861;
repr.
Bruxelles
1969)
(with
Apollonius
of
Perga).
2. P. Tannery, C. Henry (eds.), Áuvres de
Fermat, 4 vols.+ suppl. (Paris 1891-1922),
with the correspondence Pascal-Fermat in
vol. 2 (1894)pp. 288-314, correspondence
with Carcavi and Christiaan Huygens,pp.
320-331,
other
Edition:
5
vols.
(University of Michigan 2001).
3. Doctrinae analyticae inventum novum
collectum ex variis... (Toulouse1670).

9. Publications:
4. Diophanti Alexandrini Arithmeticorum libri
sex et de numeris multangulis liber unus.
Diophantus
Alexandrinus"
(Toulouse
1670),
German: Bemerkungen zu Diophant (Leipzig 1932),
English: Thomas Little Heath (ed.), Diophantus
of Alexandria (New York 1965).
5. Treatise on the Spherical Tangencies (London
1771).
6. Excerptum breve ex operibus
Fermatii,... (London 1807).
...
Petri
7. La correspondance de Blaise Pascal et de
Pierre de Fermat (Paris 1894;Fontenay aux roses
1983).
8. EinfÄuhrung in die ebenen und kÄorperlichen
Ä
Orter
(Leipzig
1923).
9. Fermats Abhandlungen Äuber Maxima und Minima
(Leipzig 1934).

10. Scientific Awards:
Fermat is also famous for “Fermat's last
Theorem". The Crater Fermat on the moon,
Passage
Fermat
and
Rue
Fermat
(14th
Arrondissement) in Paris.
Copyright
°c
by
Stochastikon
(http://encyclopedia.stochastikon.com)
GmbH

11. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

12. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

13. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

14. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

15. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

16. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

17. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

18. Fermat’s Work on Refraction:
A History

19. Quotation of the Day:
“I have so little aptitude in writing out
my [mathematical] demonstrations that I
have been content to have discovered the
truth, and to know the means of proving it
when I shall have reason to do so.”
– Pierre de Fermat

20. REFERENCES
http://www.robertnowlan.com/pdfs/Fermat,%20Pierre%20de.pdf
http://science.larouchepac.com/fermat/history.html
http://encyclopedia.stochastikon.com