1. by: Vincent Bissonnette
Carl Friedrich Gauss
by: Vincent Bissonnette

2. Outline Biography Historical & geographical context
Linear algebra works
Gaussian Elimination

3. Biography German nationality, lived in Basse-saxe
Lived between end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th ( )
Studied at Brunswick University of Technology ( )
Elected as a member of the Royal Society in 1804
Won the Lalande prize of the Académie des Sciences in 1810
Won the Copley Medal in 1838 of the Royal Society of London
Died in 1855 in Göttingen

4. Historical & Geographical Context
Germany at the beginning of the 19th century
World leader at that time for the development of science
Establishment of some of the oldest university of the world
More centered on philosophy, theology and law than on science
Germany and its scientific literature from the early 19th century through the beginning of WW II were very important for the development of science throughout the world

5. Linear Algebra Works
Found a complete solution to the “cyclotomic equation”
 X^m -1=0
Found that every polynomial in one variable that has real coefficients is a product of quadratic and linear factors.
Created the theorem and the proof

6. Cyclotomic Equation
Gauss showed that the cyclotomic equation can be reduced to solving a series of Quadratic Equations whenever p is a Fermat Prime in the equation x^p=1.
Fermat Prime: Fn=2^(2^n)+1
The only Fermat primes know are: 3, 5, 17, 257, 65537

7. Gaussian Elimination
Gauss and Adrien-Marie Legendre invented “a method to draw statistical inferences for the unknowns in overdetermined, simultaneous linear equations by minimizing the sum of the squares of the discrepancies.”
After this method of “least square”, many mathematicians modified the method depending on the societal need for computation which led to the method we know today.

8. END
Thank you