Fermat, PIERRE DE

Fermat, PIERRE DE, a French mathematician, was born at Beaumont de Lomagne, near Montauban, in 1601, and at an early period, in conjunction with his friend Pascal, hit upon a very ingenious mode of considering figurate numbers, upon which he subsequently based his doctrine of the calculation of probabilities. Fermat employed himself greatly with the properties of numbers, and made many acute discoveries in regard to their composition and analysis. He also squared the parabola in a much simpler way than Archimedes at an earlier period had done, and made many other discoveries in geometry. His method of finding the greatest and least ordinates of curved lines was analogous to the method of the then unknown differential calculus. In addition to his scientific attainments Fermat possessed an extraordinary knowledge of ancient and modern languages. He died at Toulouse, 12th January 1665. A collection of Fermat's works appeared at Paris in 1670-79.