User talk:Mohd Iqbal Dar

January 2020

Hello, I'm Dr.K.. I wanted to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions have been undone because they did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the help desk. Thanks. Dr. K. 09:48, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Pierre de Fermat's birthdate

Hi Mohd Iqbal Dar, and welcome.

I've undone your change of Pierre de Fermat's birthdate from 1607 to 1601. While it is true that many biographies still give 1601 as his birth year, this appears to be incorrect. According to the source cited in the article: MAA: When was Pierre de Fermat Born?, the correct date appears to be 1607:

Most biographies of Fermat still give 1601 as his birth year. However, Klaus Barner, Professor Emeritus of the University of Kassel, Germany, has discovered that this is incorrect (Barner 2001). Investigating in French archives, he found the following facts: In the baptismal register of the city of Beaumont, he read that Piere (with one “r”), son of Dominique Fermat, was baptized August 20, 1601. Other documents show that the name of Piere's mother was Françoise Cazenove. It seems that she, her son, and a daughter died after 1603. Sometime between 1603 and 1607, Dominique Fermat married a second time. His new wife, Claire de Long, bore him five children, among them a son named Pierre again, like his deceased half-brother. Unfortunately the baptismal registers from 1607 to 1611 are completely missing. But the mathematician's eldest son, Samuel, had written in the last line of the Latin epitaph of his father at the family grave in Toulouse:

"OB.[iit] XII. IAN[uarii] .M.DC.LXV. AET[ate] .AN.[norum] .LVII."

That is, Pierre de Fermat died on January 12, 1665, at the age of 57 years. This means he was born between January 13, 1607, and January 12, 1608, and most probably in 1607. Additional research led Barner to conclude that Fermat was born between October 31 and December 6, 1607 (Barner 2007).

Paul August ☎ 11:54, 12 January 2020 (UTC)