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Carl Friedrich Gauss

German mathematician, astronomer and physicist [Johann] Carl Friedrich Gauss(April 30, 1777 -

February 23, 18! "as one o# the $reatest mathematicians "ho e%er li%ed& 'nMen of Mathematics,

&)& *ell called him the +prince o# mathematicians& )o this day his

"or still dominates the mathematical "orld& .e published more

than 10 "ors, main$ important contributions to the +least

s/uares method, Gauss-ordan elimination #or sol%in$ matri

e/uations, and the bell cur%e #or normal distribution& .e laid the

#oundation #or number theory, and in 1801 redisco%ered the lost

asteroid eres usin$ ad%anced computational techni/ues& Gauss

applied ri$orous mathematical analysis to such subects as $eometry, $eodesy, electrostatics, and

electroma$netism& .e "as in%ol%ed in the #irst "orld"ide sur%ey o# the arth4s ma$netic #ield&

*et"een 1756 and 1800, mathematical ideas came so o#ten and so /uicly to him that he barely had

time to "rite them all do"n&.e "as not one to rush to publish& 'n #act he did not consider that hasty

spreadin$ o# the ne"s o# breathrou$hs in mathematics "as as necessary as it mi$ht be in the %arious

sciences& .e sa" no ecuse #or publication o# +slo%enly or ill-di$ested "or& ne o# his mottos says it

best& .is intention "as to publish +Fe", but ripe& A#ter his death, many important papers "ere #ound

that he had not published because they had not met his hi$h standards&

Gauss "as born in the uchy o# *runs"ic, the son o# a domineerin$, illiterate, unind and uncouth

briclayer& .is mother "as his #ather4s second "i#e, and their marria$e "as not happy& 9he li%ed to the

a$e o# 57, al"ays de%oted to her son& Gauss "as an astonishin$ prodi$y "ho tau$ht himsel# to read and

to calculate be#ore the a$e o# three& .ad not his elementary school teacher, .err *uttner and his

assistant ohann :artin *artels ["ho later tau$ht ;iolai

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precocity, he mi$ht ha%e become a laborer rather than one o# the #oremost mathematicians o# all time&

.is teachers con%inced the ue o# *runs"ic->ol#enbuttel to pro%ide the 1?-year-old $enius "ith a

stipend to pay #or his education& 'n 1752, Gauss "as sent to the *runs"ic olle$ium arolinum,

"here he per#ected his sill "ith ancient and modern lan$ua$es and #amiliari@ed himsel# "ith

elementary $eometry, al$ebra, and analysis& *y this time he had established his li#e4s "or habits

etensi%e empirical in%esti$ation, "hich led to conectures and ne" insi$hts that $uided #urther

eperiments and obser%ations&

Gauss #ormulated the principle o# least s/uares, "hile adustin$ une/ual approimations and searchin$

#or re$ularity in the distribution o# prime numbers, and #ound results that "ould hold i# +uclidean

$eometry "ere not the true one& .e used induction to pro%e the la" o# /uadratic reciprocity, una"are,

due to his limited access to mathematical "ors, that

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Gauss "ent to GCttin$en, "here he de%oured mathematical classics una%ailable to him at the

olle$ium& .is only #riend "as Faras *olyai, "ith "hom Gauss corresponded #or many years&

ri$inally he planned to become a philolo$ist, but in 1756 he made a dramatic disco%ery that tipped the

balance to"ards li#e as a mathematician& .e obtained the necessary and su##icient conditions #or the

constructability "ith compass and strai$hted$e o# a re$ular 17-$on, the #irst ad%ance in uclidean

constructions in t"o millennia& Gauss le#t GCttin$en "ithout a diploma and turned to tutorin$ to earn

his li%in$& )he ue o##ered to continue the stipend i# Gauss "ould submit a doctoral dissertation to the

Dni%ersity o# .elmstedt& .is thesis, super%ised by ohann Friedrich E#a##, had the len$thy titleA New

Proof of the Theorem that Every Integral Rational Algebraic !nction can be "ecom#ose$ into Real

actors of the irst or %econ$ "egree that is, he o##ered a proo# o# the #undamental theorem o#

al$ebra& *ecause o# the ue4s stipend, Gauss didn4t need to #ind a position, so he de%oted his time to

research&

.is #amous"is&!isitiones Arithmeticae appeared in 1801& 't consisted o# se%en sections "ith all but the

last de%oted to hi$her arithmetic, that is, number theory& )he #inal piece contained his construction o#

the re$ular 17-$on& Gauss summari@ed pre%ious "or in a systematic "ay, sol%ed some o# the most

di##icult outstandin$ /uestions, and #ormulated concepts and /uestions that set the sta$e #or #uture

research in the subect& .e submitted a lar$e part o# the "or in a memoir to the French Academy in

1800, but it "as unindly reected, and e%en "hen published, it had only a small readership& .e "as

hurt by the reection, and this may eplain his reluctance to publish his #indin$s in #uture years&

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.is net "or "as o# a completely di##erent nature& 't had lon$ been speculated that there should be a

planet in the space bet"een :ars and upiter& 't "asn4t until 1801 that the 'talian astronomer Giuseppe

Eia@@i disco%ered in the a#orementioned space a ne" +small planet, "hich he named eres&

Dn#ortunately, Eia@@i had only been able to obser%e a minute portion o# its orbit be#ore it disappeared

behind the 9un& An astronomer named ach communicated Eia@@i4s obser%ations to Gauss, "ho

launched into calculations& ach then published se%eral predictions o# "here eres "ould be at

di##erent times& n ecember 7, 1801, eres appeared eactly "here ach and Gauss had predicted&

Althou$h Gauss did not re%eal his methods, it "as later learned that he had used his least s/uares

approimation method&

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From 180? to 1807, Gauss echan$ed a #e" letters at a hi$h mathematical le%el "ith 9ophie Germain,

but he ne%er %isited her in France or collaborated "ith any o# the other mathematical $iants o# the day&

.e remained isolated, as he had been since childhood, cranin$ out research paper a#ter research paper

in many di%erse branches o# mathematics and its applications& >hen the ue "as illed #i$htin$ #or

the Erussian Army in 1807, Gauss le#t *runs"ic to accept the position o# director o# the GCttin$en

bser%atory and pro#essor o# Astronomy& .e remained in these o##ices until his death, only lea%in$ his

bser%atory once in that period to attend a scienti#ic con$ress in *erlin& 'n 1805, Gauss published his

Theoria Mot!s 'or#or!m 'oelesti!m, a treatise that contributed $reatly to the impro%ement o#

practical astronomy&

9ometime later Gauss too up the subect o# $eodesy, actin$ #rom 1821 to 18?8 as scienti#ic ad%isor to

the anish and .ano%erian Go%ernments #or the sur%ey then in pro$ress& >hile "orin$ on this sur%ey

Gauss in%ented the heliotrope, an instrument that "ored by re#lectin$ the 9un4s rays usin$ mirrors and

a small telescope& Gauss4 "or in $eodesies led him to de%elop the po"er#ul method o# con#ormal

mappin$, the ind o# mappin$ that preser%es an$les& *ecause it is not possible to plot a three-

dimensional #i$ure per#ectly onto a t"o-dimensional plane, it is necessary to decide, be#ore a map is

dra"n, "hat is to be preser%ed and "hat is to be distorted&

'n 1822, Gauss "on the openha$en Dni%ersity Eri@e #or hisTheoria attractionis cor#or!m

s#haeroi$icor!m elli#ticar!m homogeneor!m metho$!s nova tracta, "hich "as principally concerned

"ith potential theory& .is #irst paper on electricity and ma$netism,Intensitas (is Magneticae Terrestris

a$ Mens!ram Absol!tam Revocata, "as published in 1833& Gauss also "rote papers on mathematical

statistics& 9hortly be#ore his death he correctly predicted that +analysis situs [topolo$y= "ould become

one o# the chie# concerns o# mathematics in the #uture&

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From early in the century, Gauss had looed into the /uestion o# the possible eistence o# a non-

uclidean $eometry& .e discussed the matter "ith Faras *olyai and in correspondence "ith &

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su##ered #rom an enlar$ed heart and shortness o# breath, and symptoms o# dropsy& .e died peace#ully in

his sleep on February 23, 18 in his se%enty-ei$hth year&

Quotation of the Day +:athematics is the /ueen o# sciences and arithmetic [number theory= is

the /ueen o# mathematics& 9he o#ten condescends to render ser%ice to astronomy and other natural

sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the #irst ran& J arl Friedrich Gauss