Fermat number

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An integer which is one more than two raised to a power which is itself a power of two (i.e., is expressible in the form 2^(2ⁿ)+1 for some n>0); equivalently, a number that is one more than two raised to some power (is expressible as 2ⁿ+1) and is prime.

Word forms

Fermat number Fermat numbers

Etymology

Named after French lawyer and amateur mathematician Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.