March 24, 2008 (LPAC)--A LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) scientific team has posted a preliminary report on universal genius Pierre de Fermat. The central point of the report is a historical overview of Fermat's discovery of the "least time" motion of light by an analysis based on final cause, in opposition to the incompetence of Descartes and the Cartesians. The entire correspondence to and from Fermat on this subject is included, as well as the relevant portions of the writings of Descartes, de la Chambre, and Leibniz. The full correspondence is over 140 pages long, and while the overview on the site can keep you grounded, you really do have to read through the entire dialog to really understand Fermat's mind.

In addition to his work on least time, Fermat contributed a great deal towards the creation of the infinitesimal calculus. His "Method of Maxima and Minima" is referred to several times by Leibniz in his early mathematical works, and Leibniz uses the case of light's least-time motion in the first printing of his differential calculus. Indeed, without this Method of Maxima and Minima, Fermat could not have proven his discovery of least-time. Fermat entered into a protracted dispute with Descartes on his Method, which ended with Descartes confessing that Fermat was correct in all of his essentials and Fermat demonstrating the superiority of his method to that of Descartes. The man famous for having invented graph paper was bested by a member of a regional parliament!

His work on arithmetic was so broad in scope, that it was not until Gauss that one person made as many breakthroughs. His "Observations on Diophantus," a collection of notes he made in the margins of a translation of Diophantus, include his "Great Theorem," as well as a number of other findings that will interest those who work through the Basement team's recent (and soon-to-be-released) reports. Also, his correspondence with Pascal served as the beginning of probability theory.

Coming soon are more on his creation of analytic geometry (it really wasn't Descartes), and his restoration of the books of Apollonius on plane loci.

These translations are offered to provide the English-speaking world with the inside story on one of the greatest scientific thinkers in history.

The report may be accessed at http://wlym.com/~animations