Prodigious Terence Tao

Terence Tao is the most famous prodigy in mathematics of our time. In this dossier, you will learn a lot of information about him, his studies, his work, the results he has obtained, the awards that have been bestowed upon him... His activity belies the idea that mathematics has become so vast that a mathematician can no longer, on his own, encompass its entire breadth. To his mathematical successes is added a formidable willingness to share. His blog, of inexhaustible richness, bears witness to this, where "Terry" dispenses a thousand pieces of advice, from specialized subjects where his answers help advance research, to more general ones, such as how to approach managing a career as a mathematician. His commitment to collaborative projects goes in this direction, through his involvement in "open science" or the energy he puts into the service of Polymath projects. Let us set out to discover this outstanding mathematician...

Which of our readers does not know the triple (3, 4, 5), embodied by the 'rope with thirteen knots' of the builders of ancient Egypt and then the Middle Ages? Why 3, 4, 5? Because 3² + 4² = 5², it's as simple as the Pythagorean theorem! This relationship links the lengths of the three sides of the most elementary right triangle there is. Beyond these three numbers that have become mythical, exploring Pythagorean triples will not only make it possible to know that the Pythagorean theorem was already known long before the birth of the most famous scholar of Antiquity, but also to uncover the secrets of these groups of three integers, through the procedures that will make it possible to construct them. This will also lead to studying the different properties of all varieties of 'Pythagorean triangles'. But do you know that Fermat, to show that 'the area of a right triangle cannot be a square', deduced his method of 'infinite descent'? The journey through this theme holds beautiful surprises!