biography

JOHANN KARL FRIEDRICH GAUSS
"THE PRINCE OF MATHEMATICIANS" BIOGRAPHY

Born on April 30th in 1777 and died on February 23rd in 1855.
He was a German mathematics prodigy and a genius scientist who gave his knowledge to contribute on different science fields (astronomy, geophysics, electrostatics, analysis, optics…) to help the human race develop its limits. He even has a lunar crater named after him!

Even though his destiny was to be son of 2 poor parents, he managed it to stand out. His genius math abilities were trained since little (3 years old) when he mentally corrected his father’s mistaken calculations.
In primary school after he misbehaved at class his math teacher gave him a task (add a list of integers in arithmetic progression) and within seconds he answered correctly. He had realized that pair wise addition of terms from opposite ends of the list yielded identical intermediate sums: 1 + 100 = 101, 2 + 99 = 101, 3 + 98 = 101, and so on, for a total sum of 50 × 101 = 5050.

His brilliant mind pleased the duke and so he sent him with a scholarship to Collegium Carolinum a honored university (1792 to 1795), and then to the University of Göttingen (1795 to 1798). During his college days he discovered other theorems:
1. Any regular polygon with a number of sides which is a Fermat prime can be constructed by compass and straightedge
2. Invented modular arithmetic
3. Proved the quadratic reciprocity law
4. Discovered that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most three triangular numbers (with well known word : Heureka! )
5. If a random number nearby some large number N is selected, the chance of it being prime is about 1 / ln(N), where ln(N) denotes the natural logarithm of N

During 1795 he left College and met a new friend (Farkas Bolyai). Also he discovered another famous theorem: the construction of a regular 17-gon by ruler and compasses.
Then he returned to Brunswick (University of Göttingen) to receive his diploma.

Later the same duke decided to keep exploiting that brilliant mind and sent him for a doctoral dissertation to the University of Helmstedt.
After his studies finished he dedicated himself to research and wrote a book called Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801)- quadratic reciprocity.
In 1807 he became director of observatory in Göttingen and lost his father. In 1809 he pusblished an important work on astronomy and lost his wife. As you see his life was balanced.

Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis solem ambientum (theory of motion of the celestial bodies moving in conic sections around the sun).
After long years of analysis he discovered the non-Euclidean geometry in 1829 but his work was published 3 years later.
In 1831 he contributed with data to his professor in physics on magnetism. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833!

After a exhausting but exiting life he was diagnosed with a enlarged heart. On Febuary 23, 1855, bad news arrived to scientist Gauss had gone to a better place because of what is most likely a heart failure.
Still after his death he kept attributing information to science, since his brain was kept and investigated. Its weight was 1,492 g and the cerebral area equal to 219,588 cm2. Highly developed convolutions were also found which may be the reason for his hard working brain.

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