Carl Friedrich Gauss

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), born Johann Friederich Carl Gauss, was a German mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. Considered the greatest mathematician of his time and as the equal of Archimedes and Newton, Gauss showed his genius early and made many of his important discoveries before he was twenty. His greatest work was done in the area of higher arithmetic and number theory; his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae is one of the masterpieces of mathematical literature.

Gauss was extremely careful and rigorous in all his work, insisting on a complete proof of any result before he would publish it. As a consequence, he made many discoveries that were not credited to him. However, his published works were enough to establish his reputation as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Gauss discovered early on the law of quadratic reciprocity and, independently of Legendre, the method of least squares. He showed that a regular polygon of n sides can be constructed using only compass and straight edge if n is of the form 2p(2q+1)(2r+1)..., where 2q + 1, 2r + 1,...are prime numbers. In 1801, following the discovery of the asteroid Ceres by Piazzi, Gauss calculated its orbit on the basis of very few accurate observations. He tested his method again successfully on the orbits of other asteroids and finally presented in his Theoria motus corporum celestium (1809). From 1821, Gauss was engaged by the governments of Hanover and Denmark in connection with geodetic survey work. This led to his extensive investigations in the theory of space curves and surfaces and his important contributions to differential geometry as well as to such practical results as his invention of the heliotrope, a device used to measure distances by means of reflected sunlight.

Gauss was also interested in electric and magnetic phenomena and after about 1830 was involved in research in collaboration with Wilhelm Weber. In 1833, he invented the electric telegraph. He also made studies of terrestrial magnetism and electromagnetic theory. During the last years of his life, Gauss was concerned with topics now falling under the general heading of topology, which had not yet been developed at that time, and he correctly predicted that this subject would become of great importance in mathematics. “Carl Friedrich Gauss”. .