Introduction of Fermat
§ Fermat, a French mathematician of the 17th
century, is known as the founder of modern
number theory.
§ He discovered the principle of analytic geometry.
He is also known as the inventor of differential
calculus. Along with his friend Pascal, he invented
the theory of probability.
§ Fermat was a famous 17th century mathematician
who founded modern number theory.
Biography
§ At this time he moved to Bordeaux where,
following the custom of his day, Fermat began a
reconstruction of Apollonius's Plane Loci in 1629.
Also during this time he did work on minima and
maxima which he gave to Etienne d'Espagnet .
§ From here Fermat went to Orleans, where he
studied law at the University, and received his
degree in civil law.
Biography
§ During this time, Fermat was preoccupied with his
hobby, mathematics.
§ He had a friendship with Beugrand (a French
mathematician) and Carvie (a French amateur
mathematician). Through Carvie, Fermat met
Mersenne, who was interested in Fermat's
discoveries on falling bodies .
§ Mersenne, (a French monk who is best known for
his role as a cleaning house for correspondence
between eminent philosophers and scientists and
for his work in number theory).
Biography
§ Not until Blaise Pascal, wrote him
concerning his ideas on probability. They
had a short correspondence about the
theory, and that is why they are both
credited for it.
§ Correspondences with other
mathematicians continued until Fermat died
on January 12, 1665.
Contributions to Mathematics
§ Throughout the course of his life, Fermat came up
with many mathematical theorems and played
significant roles in geometry and calculus.
§ He began his math studies by restoring lost works
of antiquity.
§ His work on the Plane Loci, or Greek geometry of
the 3rd century B.C. found that the study of Loci,
or sets of points with certain characteristics, could
be done by the application of algebra to geometry
through the coordinate system .
Last Theorem
§ Of all of his work, Fermat is
best known for his "Last
Theorem" .
§ This is quite ironic because
his own proof for it has
never been found.
§ Some say that Fermat
never really had a proof, or
that his proof was wrong.
Last Theorem
§ A researcher at Princeton, Andrew Wiles, claimed
to have a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem during
a three day seminar.
§ However, the proof was found to be wanting, and
on October 25, 1994, the professor and his
coworker Richard Taylor released two preprints
Ring theoretic properties of certain Hecke
algebras and Modular elliptic curves and Fermat's
Last Theorem .
Last Theorem
§ Perhaps this is what
Fermat intended all along.
Life of Euler
§ He always had a deep interest in
mathematics, reading books on the subject
from an early age.
§ Whilst growing up he had come into contact
with Johann Bernoulli, a family friend and
impressive mathematician.
Life of Euler
§ Euler worked for many years on projects at
the academy.
§ Mainly studied number theory, differential
equations and rational mechanics.
§ Won the grand prize of the Paris Academy
in 1738 and 1740 he was now a very well
respected mathematician.
Life of Euler
§ He was still able to continue working right up
to his death. Indeed, he published many
articles after he became blind with the help
of friends and family.
§ Euler died on 18th September 1783,
possibly of a brain hemorrhage.
Fermat to Euler via Goldbach
§ At first, Euler was reticent to pursue the
subject of Number Theory. However, his
own curiosity and Goldbach’s constant
prodding led Euler to investigate.
§ Before he finished, Euler’s number theory
would fill four large volumes of his work
Opera Omnia.
Example of Euler’s Work on Fermat
§ He investigated primes that can be written
as the sum of two perfect squares.
§ Besides 2, all primes are odd numbers.
§ When an odd number is divided by 4 one
obtains a remainder of either 1 or 3.
Example of Euler’s Work on Fermat
§ Fermat asserted that primes of the form:
p = 4k +1
can be written as the sum of two perfect
squares in one and only one way.
§ And, primes of the form:
p = 4k +3
can not be written as the sum of two perfect
squares.
Example of Euler’s Work on Fermat
And,
199 = (4x49) + 1
can not be written as the sum of two
squares.
A Little More of Euler and Fermat
§ This result became known as:
Fermat’s Little Theorem
Proof of Little Fermat Theorem
§ I. If a prime divides a product then it divides
one of the factors. This was proved by
Euclid in his book (Elements).
§ II. If p is prime and a is any whole number,
then
p −1 p − 1 p − 2 ( p − 1)( p − 2) p −3
a + a + a + ..... + a
2 ×1 3 × 2 ×1
Proof of Little Fermat Theorem
§ Theorem 2: If p is prime and if ap – a is
evenly divisible by p, then so is
(a+1)p - (a+1) .
§ Proof: Theorem 1 tells us that p divides
evenly into (a+1)p - (ap+1) . By assumption,
p also divides evenly into ap - a. Thus p
divides into sum of these two
[(a +1) − (a +1)]+[a − a] = (a +1) − a −1+ a − a
p p p p p p
= (a +1) − (a +1)
p
Proof of Little Fermat Theorem
§ Next Euler used Theorem 2 for a = 2:
(2+1)p - (2+1) = 3p - 3.
Hence,
The result holds for a = 3.
§ Repeating this process, Euler found that this
holds for any whole number a. So, p is a
factor of ap – a.
Proof of Little Fermat Theorem
§ Since p is a prime, I implies that p must
divide evenly into either a or ap - 1 - 1 (or
both).
But
by assumption, p does not divide evenly
into a. Thus, p divides into ap -1 – 1.
Euler’s Refutation of Fermat’s
Conjecture
§ Theorem B: Suppose a is an even number
and p is a prime that is not a factor of a but
such that p does divide evenly into a2 + 1.
Then for some whole number k, p = 4k + 1.
§ Proof: Shown on B.B.
Euler’s Refutation of Fermat’s
Conjecture
§ Theorem: 232 + 1 is not prime.
Proof: Shown on B.B.
232 + 1 = 4,294,967,297 = 641 x
6,700,417
Fermat was wrong!!!!!!!
