Pierre de Fermat
Life
A pioneer of number theory. Famous for Fermat's Last Theorem — a margin note that took 358 years to prove.
Decisive moments
A note in the margin of Diophantus
ToulouseHe recorded the theorem and a claim of proof in a Latin Arithmetica. The original note is lost and is known through the posthumous edition published by his son in 1670.
Fermat's little theorem
He discovered that a^p ≡ a (mod p) for prime p — 300 years later the basis of RSA encryption.
Correspondence with Pascal — the birth of probability
Letters with Pascal over a question from the gambler Chevalier de Méré — the first appearance of expected value.
If this person hadn't existed
This is a thought experiment about influence, not a verified historical fact.
The margin note is less important than the mathematics generated around his questions: descent arguments, results on primes, methods for tangents and extrema, and the probability correspondence with Pascal fed several later traditions.
Influence network
Beyond MathVoyage
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