Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss

Gauss, Carl Friedrich (1777-1855) was a German scientist and mathematician Gauss is frequently called the founder of modern mathematics. His work is astronomy and physics is nearly as significant as that in mathematics. Gauss was born on April 30, 1777 in Brunswick (now it is Western Germany). Many biographists think that he got his good health from his father. Gauss said about himself that, he could count before he can talk. When Gauss was 7 years old he went to school. In the third grade students came when they were 10-15 years old, so teacher should work with students of different ages. Because of it he gave to half of students long problems to count, so he in that time could teach other half. One day he gave half of students, Gauss was in this half, to add all natural numbers from 1 to 100. 10 year old Gauss put his paper with answer on the teacher's desk first and he was the only who has got the right answer. From that day Gauss was popular in the whole school (Gindikin, 135).

On October 15, 1795, Gauss was admitted to Georgia Augusta as "matheseos cult."; that is to say, as a mathematics student. But it is often pointed out that at first Gauss was undecided whether he should become a mathematician or a philologist. The reason for this indecision was probably that humanists at that time had a better economic future than scientists. Gauss first became completely certain of his choice of studies when he discovered the construction of the regular 17-sided polygon with ruler and compass; that is to say, after his first year at the university. There are several reasons to support the assertion that Gauss hesitated in his choice of a career. But his matriculation as a student of mathematics does not point toward philology, and probably Gauss had already made his decision when he arrived at Gottingen. He wrote in 1808 that it was noteworthy how number theory arouses a special passion among everyone who has seriously studied it at some time, and, as we have seen, he had found new results in this and other areas of mathematics while he was still at Collegium Carolinum (Gindikin, 138).

Gauss made great discoveries in many fields of math. He gave the proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra: every polynomial equation with complex coefficients has at least one complex root. He developed the theory of some important special functions, in particular, the theory of the hyper geometric function. This function plays significant role in modern mathematical physics. Gauss discovered the method of so-called least squares. It is a method of obtaining the best possible average value for a measured magnitude, for many observations of the magnitude. The other part of mathematics that also has close connections to Gauss is the theory of complex numbers. Gauss gave a very important geometric interpretation of a complex number as a point in the ...