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Carl Friedrich Gauss: German Mathematician

Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and physicist born in 1777 who is regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He made significant contributions across many fields of mathematics and science. As a child he demonstrated an extraordinary ability to do complex calculations in his head. He studied at the University of Göttingen from 1795 to 1798. Some of his most important works included proving the fundamental theorem of algebra and making pioneering contributions to number theory in his 1801 book Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. He is considered the preeminent mathematician of his era.

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231 views2 pages

Carl Friedrich Gauss: German Mathematician

Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and physicist born in 1777 who is regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He made significant contributions across many fields of mathematics and science. As a child he demonstrated an extraordinary ability to do complex calculations in his head. He studied at the University of Göttingen from 1795 to 1798. Some of his most important works included proving the fundamental theorem of algebra and making pioneering contributions to number theory in his 1801 book Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. He is considered the preeminent mathematician of his era.

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Ashley Jade Garcia
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Carl Friedrich

Gauss
German mathematician

Carl
Carl Friedrich
Friedrich Gauss
Gauss original
original namename is
is Johann
Johann Friedrich
Friedrich Carl Carl
GaussGauss

Born April 30, 1777, Died February 23, 1855,


Brunswick [Germany] (Göttingen, Hanover)

German mathematician and physicist , generally regarded as one of the


greatest mathematicians of all time for his contributions to number theory,
geometry, probability theory, geodesy, planetary astronomy, the theory of
functions, and potential theory (including electromagnetism) He made
significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science.
Gauss was the only child of poor parents. He was rare among mathematicians
in that he was a calculating prodigy, and he retained the ability to do
elaborate calculations in his head most of his life. Impressed by this ability and
by his gift for languages, his teachers and his devoted mother recommended
him to the duke of Brunswick in 1791, who granted him financial assistance to
continue his education locally and then to study mathematics at the
University of Göttingen from 1795 to 1798. Gauss’s pioneering work gradually
established him as the era’s preeminent mathematician, first in the German-
speaking world and then farther afield, although he remained a remote and
aloof figure.
Carl Friedrich
Gauss
German mathematician

Career and
achievements

In his 1799 doctorate in absentia, A new proof of the


theorem that every integral rational algebraic function of one variable
can be resolved into real factors of the first or second degree, Gauss proved the
fundamental theorem of algebra which states that every non-constant single-
variable polynomial with complex coefficients has at least one complex root.
Mathematicians including Jean le Rond d'Alembert had produced false proofs
before him, and Gauss's dissertation contains a critique of d'Alembert's work.
Ironically, by today's standard, Gauss's own attempt is not acceptable, owing to
he implicit use of the Jordan curve theorem. However, he subsequently produced
three other proofs, the last one in 1849 being generally rigorous. His attempts
clarified the concept of complex numbers considerably along the way.
Gauss also made important contributions to number theory with his 1801 book
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (Latin, Arithmetical Investigations), which, among
≡
other things, introduced the triple bar symbol for congruence and used it in a
clean presentation of modular arithmetic, contained the first two proofs of the law
of quadratic reciprocity, developed the theories of binary and ternary quadratic
forms, stated the class number problem for them, and showed that a regular
heptadecagon (17-sided polygon) can be constructed with straightedge and
compass. It appears that Gauss already knew the class number formula in 1801.

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