Biography of Carl Friedrich Gauss


Carl Friedrich Gauss was an outstanding mathematician who proved a number of algebraic and geometric theorems.

Childhood and early years

Karl Friedrich Gauss, the son of a poor man and an uneducated mother, independently solved the riddle of the date of his birth and defined it as April 30, 1777. Gauss showed all signs of genius from his childhood. The main work of his life, “Arithmetic Studies”, the young man finished back in 1798 when he was only 21 years old, although he was not published until 1801. This work was of primary importance for improving the theory of numbers as a scientific discipline, and introduced this area of ​​knowledge in the form in which we know it today. The tremendous powers of Gauss so amazed the Duke of Braunschweig that he sends Karl to study at the Charles collegium, which Gauss visits from 1792 to 1795. In 1795-1798 Gauss moved to Goetting University. For his university years, the mathematician has proved many significant

theorems.

Start of work

1796 is the most successful both for Gauss himself and for his theory of numbers. One by one, he makes important discoveries. March 30, for example, he opens the rules for building the right seventeen-corner. He improves modular arithmetic and greatly simplifies manipulations in number theory. April 8 Gauss proves the law of reciprocity of quadratic residues, which allows mathematicians to find the solution of any quadratic equation of modular arithmetic. On May 31 he proposes a theorem of primes, thus giving an accessible explanation of how prime numbers are distributed among integers. July 10, the scientist makes the discovery that any positive integer can be expressed by a sum of not more than three triangular numbers.

In 1799 Gauss defended his thesis in absentia, in which he gives new proofs of the theorem that every rational integer algebraic function with one variable can be represented by the product of real numbers of the first and second degree. He confirms the fundamental theorem of algebra, which says that every non-constant polynomial in one variable with complex

coefficients has at least one complex root. His efforts greatly simplify the concept of complex numbers.

And at this time the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi opens the dwarf planet Ceres, which instantly disappears in a sunny glow, but a few months later, when Piazza expects to see her again in the sky, Ceres does not appear. Gauss, who was only 23 years old, after learning about the problem of an astronomer, takes up her permission. In December 1801, after three months of hard work, he defines Ceres’s position in the starry sky with an error of only half a degree.

In 1807, the brilliant scientist Gauss obtained the post of professor of astronomy and head of the astronomical observatory of Göttingen, which he will occupy for the rest of his life.

Late years

In 1831 Gauss met Professor of Physics Wilhelm Weber, and acquaintance it turned out to be fruitful. Their joint work leads to new discoveries in the field of magnetism and the establishment of Kirchhoff’s rules in the field of electricity. Gauss formulated the law of his own name. In 1833, Weber and Gauss invented the first electromechanical telegraph that connected the observatory with the Institute of Physics of Göttingen. After that, in the yard of the astronomical observatory, an observatory is built, in which Gauss, together with Weber, establishes the “Magnetic Club”, which was engaged in measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field at different points of the planet. Gauss also successfully develops a technique for determining the horizontal component of the Earth’s magnetic field.

Personal life

The personal life of Gauss was a series of tragedies, beginning with the premature death of his first wife, Joanna Ostoff, in 1809, and the subsequent death of one of their children, Louis. Gauss marries again, on the best friend of her first wife Frederick Wilhelmine Waldeck, but she, after a long illness, dies. From the two marriages, Gauss had six children.

Death and heritage

Gauss died in 1855 in Göttingen, Hanover. His body was cremated and buried in Albanifridhof. According to the results of the study of his brain by Rudolf Wagner, the Gauss brain had a mass of 1.492 g and a cross-sectional area of ​​the brain of 219.588 mm2, which scientifically proves that Gauss was a genius.


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Biography of Carl Friedrich Gauss