Pierre de Fermat
Piere de Fermat was a son of a wealthy French leather merchant. He was born in Lomangne in 1601 and he had one brother and two sisters. His education was never really known. It is assumed he either went to a local monastery or was home schooled. It is known that he attended the University of Toulouse and later moved to Bordeaux. Bordeaux was the first place where Fermat practices mathematics but he went on to study law at the university of Orleans. In 1631 Pierre Fermat received a degree in civil law and also became a government official. Because of his new title he was entitled to change his name to Pierre de Fermat.
Pierre spent the remainder of his life in Toulouse, his career in law would continue to grow and by 1652 at the age of 51, he was promoted to the highest level of the criminal court.
None the less, Fermat never gave up on his interest in mathematics and had a few friends that he met through his hobby like Beaugrand and Carcavi.
Fermat was an amateur mathematician; he never wrote any books or published any of his discoveries. He was more interested in sharing his information with others and learning instead of teaching. One of his most remembered pieces of work was written in the margin of the book Arithmetica written by Diophantus. The theory became known as Fermat’s last theorem. The theorem states
"I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is small to contain."
What the theorem meant was never really proven until 1995 and many more theories were discovered as a result.
Fermat died in 1665 and he was remembered as the Prince of Amateur as he was never really known as a "mathematician," however, he will always be remembered for his contributions to math and his discoveries about prime numbers.
By: Dean