Pierre Fermat was born on August 17, 1601 in Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France, the son of a leather merchant. He was educated at the University of Toulouse, and the University of Orléans, receiving a degree in law in 1631. He spent his adult life in Toulouse, working as a lawyer and government official.
Fermat's official duties left plenty of time for the pursuit of his real passion, mathematics. Fermat made fundamental contributions in analytic geometry (in some cases before Renee Descartes), number theory, and geometric infinitesimals (the forerunner of calculus). He is best known for his last theorem
in number theory: there do not exit positive integers \(x\), \(y\), \(z\), and \(n\) with \(n \gt 2\)
and \[x^n + y^n = z^n\]
This was perhaps the most famous open conjecture in mathematics, until finally settled by Andrew Wiles in 1995.
Fermat is important in the history of probability because of his correspondence with Blaise Pascal on the problem of points (determine the division of stakes when a game of chance between equal players is interrupted). Fermat gave a solution based on counting permutations. This correspondence is considered by many to be the beginning of the mathematical theory of probability.
Fermat died on January 12, 1665 in Castres, France.