Fermat polygonal number theorem
Teorema del número poligonal de Fermat
- Date
- 1638 · confidence medium
- Place
- Toulouse, Occitania, France
- Credited to
- Pierre de Fermat
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
A conjecture that every positive integer is the sum of at most n n-gonal numbers (three triangular numbers, four squares, five pentagonal numbers, and so on), stated by Pierre de Fermat without proof.
What it led to
- Additive number theory
- General proof by Cauchy (1813)
- Study of integer representations as figurate sums
- Waring's problem in number theory