From the history of maths
Pierre de Fermat
A lawyer who did mathematics in his spare time. On Christmas Day 1640 he wrote to Mersenne about which primes are sums of two squares.
He scribbled that he had a marvellous proof of what became Fermat’s Last Theorem. It took until 1994, and Andrew Wiles, to prove it.
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Where you’ll meet Pierre de Fermat here
Number theoryProbability
They turn up beside problems and lessons on these topics.
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Shakuntala Devi
Known as the “human computer”, in 1980 at Imperial College London she multiplied two 13-digit numbers in her head in 28 seconds.
She also wrote popular books of puzzles and mental arithmetic.
Central News Agency (Taiwan), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons