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Pierre de Fermat |
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| French mathematician Pierre de Fermat formulated a theorem that mathematicians spent centuries trying to prove. The theorem, called Fermat’s Last Theorem, stipulates that the Pythagorean equation (a2 + b2 = c2) is true only for squares and that no positive integers can be found to satisfy the equation when the exponent is greater than two. While the unique theorem has a limited practical use, attempts to prove it have generated important discoveries in algebra and analysis. | ||||||
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| Corbis | ||||||
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| Appears in these articles: | ||||||
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| Mathematics; Fermat’s Last Theorem; Fermat, Pierre de | ||||||
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