Britannica
Sources used in this answer
Which algebraic curves did Pierre de Fermat show could be rectified?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Pierre de Fermat
Fermat, portrait by Roland Lefèvre; in the Narbonne City Museums, France
In his paper "De Linearum Curvarum cum Lineis Rectis Comparatione" (1660), Pierre de Fermat disproved the widely held view that the rectification of algebraic curves was impossible. He demonstrated that the semicubical parabola and certain other algebraic curves were strictly rectifiable.1