Number theory | Definition, Topics, & History | Britannica
Oct 6, 2025 · number theory, branch of mathematics concerned with properties of the positive integers (1, 2, 3, …). Sometimes called “higher arithmetic,” it is among the oldest and most …
Number theory - Euclid, Prime Numbers, Divisibility | Britannica
Oct 6, 2025 · As mathematics filtered from the Islamic world to Renaissance Europe, number theory received little serious attention. The period from 1400 to 1650 saw important advances …
number theory summary | Britannica
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 …
Riemann hypothesis | Prime Numbers, Zeta Function & Complex …
Sep 11, 2025 · number theory, branch of mathematics concerned with properties of the positive integers (1, 2, 3, …). Sometimes called “higher arithmetic,” it is among the oldest and most …
Mathematics - Number Theory, Algorithms, Equations | Britannica
Oct 1, 2025 · Beginning with Nicomachus of Gerasa (flourished c. 100 ce), several writers produced collections expounding a much simpler form of number theory. A favourite result is …
Riemann zeta function | Analytic Properties, Complex Analysis ...
Oct 6, 2025 · number theory, branch of mathematics concerned with properties of the positive integers (1, 2, 3, …). Sometimes called “higher arithmetic,” it is among the oldest and most …
Modular arithmetic | Number Theory, Congruence & Algorithms
Sep 27, 2025 · number theory, branch of mathematics concerned with properties of the positive integers (1, 2, 3, …). Sometimes called “higher arithmetic,” it is among the oldest and most …
Fermat’s theorem | Number Theory, Diophantine Equations
Fermat’s theorem, in number theory, the statement, first given in 1640 by French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, that for any prime number p and any integer a such that p does not divide a …
Metaphysics, Number Theory, Philosophy - Britannica
Things “are” number, or “resemble” number. To many Pythagoreans this concept meant that things are measurable and commensurable or proportional in terms of number—an idea of …
Diophantus | Biography & Facts | Britannica
The most famous extension of Diophantus’s work was by Pierre de Fermat (1601–65), the founder of modern number theory. In the margins of his copy of Arithmetica, Fermat wrote …