Pierre de Fermat

The Problem of the Era: Fermat's Last Theorem Pierre de Fermat was a French number theorist of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He worked mainly in the field of analytic geometry using the arithmetic notation of Francois Viete proposed earlier. His system of analytic geometry was similar to that of Descartes. He also tried to reconstruct an ancient work led to methods similar to the integration and differentiation of calculus, (which wasn't formally established as a field of mathematics). He used his methods to find the extrema of functions. His most important work, however, was in the field of prime numbers, (numbers evenly divisible only by themselves and one).

But Fermat's most interesting theorem is what is referred to as Fermat's last theorem. Scribbled into the margin of a book by Appollinus of Perga, was written:

"I have discovered a truly remarkable proof [of this theorem] which this margin is too small to contain."

Fermat set out to prove that for the expression:

x^n+y^n=z^n

-when x, y, and z are non-zero integers, no number other than 2 is a possible value for n.

Throughout the ages mathematicians all have tried to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, but all have failed. But in 1993 a scientist named, Andrew Wiles from Princeton posed a very solid proof, and no mathematician has been able to disprove him. It seems as if the problem of the era might possibly be solved.

Source:
"Fermat's Last Theorem" Britannica Online.
http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/206/79.html
[Accessed 09 April 1998].

Addi Faerber 1998.