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Monday, January 10, 2011

Carl Friedrich Gauss


508Px-Bendixen - Carl Friedrich Gauß, 1828

Child prodigy Gauss, the ‘Prince of Mathematics’, made his first major discovery whilst still a teenager, and wrote the incredible Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, his magnum opus, by the time he was 21. Many know Gauss for his outstanding mental ability – quoted to have added the numbers 1 to 100 within seconds whilst attending primary school (with the aid of a clever trick). The local Duke, recognizing his talent, sent him to Collegium Carolinum before he left for Gottingen (at the time it was the most prestigious mathematical university in the world, with many of the best attending). After graduating in 1798 (at the age of 22), he began to make several important contributions in major areas of mathematics, most notably number theory (especially on Prime numbers). He went on to prove the fundamental theorem of algebra, and introduced the Gaussian gravitational constant in physics, as well as much more – all this before he was 24! Needless to say, he continued his work up until his death at the age of 77, and had made major advances in the field which have echoed down through time.

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