Fermat’s Last Theorem Essay -- Pierre Fermat Math Mathematics Papers

Fermats get going Theorem The form is 1637. Pierre de Fermat sits in his library, flock exclusively over a copy of Arithmetica written by the Greek mathematicsematician Diaphantus in the third century A. D. Turning the page, Fermat comes across the Pythagorean equation x 2 + y 2 = z 2. He leans back in his chair to think and wonders if this property is limited to the power of two only. He bends over the book again, scanning ahead through the pages to look for any clues. Suddenly, he begins writing intensely in the margin It is impossible for a cube to be written as a sum of two cubes, or for a poop power to be written as the sum of two fourth powers or, in general, for any number which is a power greater than the second to be written as a sum of two like powers. I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain. These words, written so carelessly, were to survive to bewilder, frustrate and elude mathematicians of all k inds for centuries to come. This is the legend of Fermats Last Theorem.Pierre de Fermat was born in the town of Beaumont-de-Lomagne in southwestern France at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the year 1601. Being the son of a wealthy merchant, Fermat was able to gain a privileged education at monasteries and universities. The young man, however, never showed any particular talent in the subject of mathematics, choosing instead to pursue a career in the civil service of France. His elevated status in society allowed him to include the de in his surname. He suffered a serious attack of the plague during his adult life, severe enough to prompt friends to mistakenly pronounce him dead Fermat never made math his career, but mathematics at th... ...Kolata, Gina. How a gap in the Fermat proof was found. The New York Times, 144 (January 1995) B5. Expanded Academic ASAP. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT. 15 September 2002.Mackenzie, Dana. Fermats Last Theorem Exten ded. Science 285.5425 (July 1999) 178. Expanded Academic ASAP. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT. 15 September 2002. Mozzochi, C. J. The Fermat Diary. American Mathematical Society, 2000.Ribenboim, Paulo. Fermats Last Theorem for Amateurs. New York Springer, 1999.Singh, Simon. Fermats Enigma the Epic Quest to put to work the Worlds Greatest Mathematical Problem. New York Walker, 1997.Van der Poorten, Alf. Notes on Fermats last theorem. New York J. Wiley, 1996.Weisstein, Eric W. Fermat, Pierre de. Wolfram Research. http//scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Fermat.html (14 September 2002.)