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[2] [3] The statement that every prime p of the form + is the sum of two squares is sometimes called Girard's theorem. [4] For his part, Fermat wrote an elaborate version of the statement (in which he also gave the number of possible expressions of the powers of p as a sum of two squares) in a letter to Marin Mersenne dated December 25, 1640 ...
Of the primes occurring in this decomposition, 2, 5, and 7, only 7 is congruent to 3 modulo 4. Its exponent in the decomposition, 2, is even. Therefore, the theorem states that it is expressible as the sum of two squares. Indeed, 2450 = 7 2 + 49 2. The prime decomposition of the number 3430 is 2 · 5 · 7 3. This time, the exponent of 7 in the ...
Girard was the first to state, in 1625, that each prime of the form 1 mod 4 is the sum of two squares. [3] (See Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares.) It was said that he was quiet-natured and, unlike most mathematicians, did not keep a journal for his personal life. In the opinion of Charles Hutton, [4] Girard was
The works of the 17th-century mathematician Pierre de Fermat engendered many theorems. Fermat's theorem may refer to one of the following theorems: Fermat's Last Theorem, about integer solutions to a n + b n = c n; Fermat's little theorem, a property of prime numbers; Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares, about primes expressible as a sum of ...
every element x of GF(2) satisfies x + x = 0 and therefore −x = x; this means that the characteristic of GF(2) is 2; every element x of GF(2) satisfies x 2 = x (i.e. is idempotent with respect to multiplication); this is an instance of Fermat's little theorem. GF(2) is the only field with this property (Proof: if x 2 = x, then either x = 0 or ...
Edwards, in Fermat's Last Theorem: A genetic introduction to number theory writes in page 16 about the theorem here in question: "Fermat stated [that every prime of the form 4n+1 can be written as a sum of two squares] many times and stated very definitely that he could prove it rigorously, although as usual he is not known ever to have put the ...
Fermat's theorem gives only a necessary condition for extreme function values, as some stationary points are inflection points (not a maximum or minimum). The function's second derivative , if it exists, can sometimes be used to determine whether a stationary point is a maximum or minimum.
In mathematics, a proof by infinite descent, also known as Fermat's method of descent, is a particular kind of proof by contradiction [1] used to show that a statement cannot possibly hold for any number, by showing that if the statement were to hold for a number, then the same would be true for a smaller number, leading to an infinite descent and ultimately a contradiction. [2]