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Fermat's principle is most familiar, however, in the case of visible light: it is the link between geometrical optics, which describes certain optical phenomena in terms of rays, and the wave theory of light, which explains the same phenomena on the hypothesis that light consists of waves.
In the generalized Fermat’s principle [6] the time is used as a functional and together as a variable. It is applied Pontryagin’s minimum principle of the optimal control theory and obtained an effective Hamiltonian for the light-like particle motion in a curved spacetime. It is shown that obtained curves are null geodesics.
The general results presented above for Hamilton's principle can be applied to optics using the Lagrangian defined in Fermat's principle.The Euler-Lagrange equations with parameter σ =x 3 and N=2 applied to Fermat's principle result in ˙ = with k = 1, 2 and where L is the optical Lagrangian and ˙ = /.
In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation a n + b n = c n for any integer value of n greater than 2. The cases n = 1 and n = 2 have been known since antiquity to have infinitely many solutions. [1]
Optical theory progressed in the mid-17th century with treatises written by philosopher René Descartes, which explained a variety of optical phenomena including reflection and refraction by assuming that light was emitted by objects which produced it. [26] This differed substantively from the ancient Greek emission theory.
The interest of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) in number theory was first spurred in 1729, when a friend of his, the amateur [note 8] Goldbach, pointed him towards some of Fermat's work on the subject. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] This has been called the "rebirth" of modern number theory, [ 52 ] after Fermat's relative lack of success in getting his ...
He used Fresnel's theory to predict that a bright spot ought to appear in the center of the shadow of a small disc, and deduced from this that the theory was incorrect. However, Arago, another member of the committee, performed the experiment and showed that the prediction was correct. [3]
Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares is strongly related with the theory of Gaussian primes.. A Gaussian integer is a complex number + such that a and b are integers. The norm (+) = + of a Gaussian integer is an integer equal to the square of the absolute value of the Gaussian integer.