number theory summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see number theory.

number theory, Branch of mathematics concerned with properties of and relations among integers. It is a popular subject among amateur mathematicians and students because of the wealth of seemingly simple problems that can be posed. Answers are much harder to come up with. It has been said that any unsolved mathematical problem of any interest more than a century old belongs to number theory. One of the best examples, recently solved, is Fermat’s last theorem.

Lagrange, Joseph-Louis, comte de l'Empire

Joseph-Louis Lagrange, comte de l’Empire Summary

Joseph-Louis Lagrange, comte de l’Empire was an Italian French mathematician who made great contributions to number theory and to analytic and celestial mechanics. His most important book, Mécanique analytique (1788; “Analytic Mechanics”), was the basis for all later work in this field. Lagrange

David Hilbert Summary

David Hilbert was a German mathematician who reduced geometry to a series of axioms and contributed substantially to the establishment of the formalistic foundations of mathematics. His work in 1909 on integral equations led to 20th-century research in functional analysis. The first steps of

Leonhard Euler Summary

Leonhard Euler was a Swiss mathematician and physicist, one of the founders of pure mathematics. He not only made decisive and formative contributions to the subjects of geometry, calculus, mechanics, and number theory but also developed methods for solving problems in observational astronomy and

Paul Erdős Summary

Paul Erdős Hungarian “freelance” mathematician (known for his work in number theory and combinatorics) and legendary eccentric who was arguably the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century, in terms of both the number of problems he solved and the number of problems he convinced others to