Pierre de Fermat.

(1601-1665)

     It's known too little about the life of the great Pierre de Fermat. We know that he was born in 1601 in France and came from the "third estate". He studied jurisprudence and worked as a councller at the parliament in Toulouse. He could devote to mathematics only time free from work. But the power of his genius was so gread, that in spite of this, his ideas left the deep in print on the whole subsequent development of number theory, geometry and mathematical calculus.

     Fermat contributed to many parts in mathematics, but his is beloved field which was in essence discovered by him was number theory. Fermat could choose from the multitute of various problems and questions those once which became central in the number theory of XVIII and XIX centuries. However, he, as a rule, didn't give the proofes of his theorems. Therefor Fermat's statement turned into the great problem for posterior scientists.

     Searching for a criterion for difining if given number is prime or not, Fermat found the following remarkable theorem: for any prime number p and a, co-prime with it, the number a ^p-1- 1 is divisible by p. It was named the "small theorem of Fermat".

     "The great" theorem of Fermat became even more famous than "the small" one. If states that xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z when n > 2. Fermat wrote his "great" theorem in the margin of Alexandrian mathematician's - Diophantus's "Arithmetics" and added, that had found its "really wonderful" proof, but couldn't write it because of the lack of the place. Since that time mathematicians tred to find its proof for 400 years, but filed. It was only some years ago that the proof was found.

     Fermat's only few works were published during his life-time and even that was done thanks to his frends' claim, many of them mathematicians who consider Fermat be the greatest mathematician of the World.

     Fermat died in 1665.