Pythagorean Theorem and Fermat's Last Theorem

Babylonian Tablets (circa 1800 BCE)

1800 BCE

Babylonian clay tablets such as Plimpton 322, which contains a list of integer Pythagorean triples, and YBC 07289, which diagrams a 1x1 square and labels the diagonal with a very precise approximation of the square root of 2. These tablet predate Pythagoras by well over a millennia.

Pythagoras born (circa 570 BCE)

570 BCE

Pythagoras or one of his followers may have constructed the first proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.

Pythagoras Dies (circa 495 BCE)

495 BCE

Euclid's Elements (circa 300 BCE)

300 BCE

Euclid publishes his proof of the Pythagorean Theorem as Proposition 47 in Book I of Elements (Givental, 2006).

Diophantus of Alexandria (circa 250)

250

Diophantus writes his mathematics text, Arithmetica. Diophantine equations are equations that only allow integer solutions.

Pierre de Fermat born (1601)

Aug 20, 1601

Fermat's Last Theorem stated that there is no solution to a^n + b^n = c^n with integers a, b, c, and n, where n > 2. 1300 years after Diophantus, Fermat would write about his last theorem (without proof) in the margins of his copy of Arithmetica.

Fermat dies (1665)

Jan 12, 1665

Fermat's Last Theorem Proven (1994)

1994

Over 350 years after the discovery of Fermat's Last Theorem, it is proven by Andrew Wiles using a branch of mathematics called elliptic curves. Wiles has received many honors for his work, including as recently as 2016 when Wiles was awarded the Abel Prize for his proof (Castelvecchi, 2016).