The Mathematical Career of Pierre de Fermat, 1601-1665

Second Edition

Michael Sean Mahoney

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780691036663
  9780691081199
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691187631
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Science History
• Index: History

Hailed as one of the greatest mathematical results of the twentieth century, the recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem by Andrew Wiles brought to public attention the enigmatic problem-solver Pierre de Fermat, who centuries ago stated his famous conjecture in a margin of a book, writing that he did not have enough room to show his "truly marvelous demonstration." Along with formulating this proposition--xn+yn=zn has no rational solution for n > 2--Fermat, an inventor of analytic geometry, also laid the foundations of differential and integral calculus, established, together with Pascal, the conceptual guidelines of the theory of probability, and created modern number theory. In one of the first full-length investigations of Fermat's life and work, Michael Sean Mahoney provides rare insight into the mathematical genius of a hobbyist who never sought to publish his work, yet who ranked with his contemporaries Pascal and Descartes in shaping the course of modern mathematics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• Preface (1994)
• Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• I. The Personal Touch
• II. Nullum Non Problema Solvere: Viète's Analytic Program and Its Influence on Fermat
• III. The Royal Road
• IV. Fashioning One's Own Luck
• V. Archimedes and The Theory of Equations
• VI. Between Traditions
• Epilogue: Fermat in Retrospect
• Appendix I: Sidelights on A Mathematical Career
• Appendix II: Bibliographical Essay and Chronological Conspectus of Fermat's Works
• Index