Famous Mathematician By: Domingo Simon Carl F. Gauss

Gauss worked in a wide variety of fields in both mathematics and physics, including number theory, mathematical analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. His work has had an immense influence in each of these areas. April 30, February 23, 1855 Born: Brunswick, Germany Died: Göttingen, Germany Bio:

A child prodigy, Gauss taught himself to read and count by the age of three. Recognizing his talent, the Duke of Brunswick provided funding in 1792 to allow Gauss to pursue a formal education. He attended Caroline College from 1792 to 1795 at which time he formulated his famous least squares method (age of seventeen) and a conjecture on the distribution of prime numbers. This conjecture was eventually proven in 1896 by Jacques Hadamard.

At the age of twenty-four, Gauss published Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, his theory of numbers. Arguably, it is one of the most brilliant achievements in the history of mathematics. The construction of regular polyhedra occur in this work as do integer congruencies and the law of quadratic reciprocity.

Carl Friedrich Gauss, though he devoted his life to mathematics, kept his ideas, problems, and solutions in private diaries. He refused to publish theories that were not finished and perfect. Still, he is considered, along with Archimedes and Newton, to be one of the three greatest mathematicians who ever lived.