Fermat's theorem (Q1119552)

In 1640, Frénicle de Bessy challenged Fermat to find a 20-digit perfect number or its successor. The author clears up some misconceptions about this challenge and indicates how Fermat showed that \(2^{37}-1\) is composite using his result: if \(a\in N\) and \(p\nmid a\), the least d for which \(p| a^ d-1\) is a divisor of p-1.