Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
(1777-1855)
Biography and inventions of Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
At the age of seven, a shy, unassuming student
came to school for the first time in Brunswick
in Germany. His mathematics teacher had
asked the students to calculate the sum of the
first 100 numbers. His teacher and all the
students were amazed when this new boy
could give the answer immediately. Upon
being asked, the young student, named Carl
Friedrich Gauss, answered that' he had
noticed that the numbers could be paired into
50 pairs and each pair summed to 101!
(100,1;99,2…50,51). Gauss' potential as a
genius was noticed very early in life. His
father was a humble man who had many jobs,
ranging from a gardener to a laborer and
finally a treasurer of an insurance fund. It is
said of Gauss that he started calculating before
he started to talk! Apparently, baby Gauss once corrected some error in his father's
calculations of wages! In 1788, Gauss started
his education at the Gymnasium, as high
schools are called in Germany. He was an
exceptional student and learnt ancient
languages. He got a scholarship from the
Duke of Brunswick and entered the
Brunswick Collegium in 1792. Here, Gauss
independently (Rediscovered) many of the
well-known mathematical relations. In 1759
Gauss went from Brunswick to Gottingen
University, then a world-famous place for
mathematics. Gauss never finished his studies
in Gottingen, but discovered his famous result
on the drawing of a regular 17-sided figure
with a ruler and a compass. He returned to
Brunswick and completed his studies there.
He proved the fundamental theorem of algebra
in his doctoral thesis. In 1801, an astronomer
named Zach had deduced the orbit of a small new planet called Cere, which had been
discovered by an Italian astronomer Piazzi.
Gauss recalculated the orbit of the planet and
in December 1801, the planet was seen
exactly where Gauss had predicted it to be.
Gauss continued his work in astronomy and in
1807 took up the position of the director of the
Gottingen observatory. The next few years
were very trying for Gauss. In 1808 his father
died and a year later his wife and second son
also died. Though he married again the
following year, he never regained happiness in
his personal life. But Gauss never let his
personal tragedy interfere with his work. He
published a major work on astronomy in 1809
and continued his observational work till he
was 70.
He continued to work on mathematics, his
first love, and proved some very important
results. In 1818, Gauss was asked to carry out a survey of the state of Hanover. He
personally took the measurements of the land
and invented the heliotrope, an instrument to
use the reflection of the sun's rays to make
accurate measurements. Gauss was extremely
excited about the survey and published many
papers on it. In the next few years, Gauss
became very interested in magnetism of the
earth and collaborated with others to make an
instrument to measure the earth's magnetic
field more accurately. From the early 1840s,
Gauss' activity gradually decreased and he
became recluse. Though he maintained a
careful regimen on his life, he was ill with
many ailments like insomnia, heart flutter and
stomach discomfort. He became a
hypochondriac and suffered from acute
depression. After 1850, he further limited his
activity because of the heart disease and
finally, when he died in his sleep in 1855, he was bedridden. Gauss has been acclaimed to
be one of the finest mathematicians ever and
was indeed a genius in all respects. His sharp
mind and acute power of deduction made him
a giant among many other famous
mathematicians and scientists of his day.
Facts at a Glance:
. Gauss proved the impossibility of drawing a
regular 7-sided polygon with a ruler and a
compass. In fact, he proved that the only
figures with odd number of sides which could
be drawn in this way were prime numbers of
the series 3, 5, 17, 257 and 65537, or
multiples of two or more these numbers.
. His work in algebra resulted in the proof of
the fundamental theorem of algebra, which is
considered to be one of the foundations of
algebra. This theorem states that every
algebraic equation has at least one solution or
root.. His work on the geometry of non-flat
surfaces was to be great importance in
Einstein's theory of relativity formulated by
Euclid, Gauss showed that Euclid's postulates
(for instance that the shortest distance between
two points is a straight line) are only valid on
flat surfaces.
. Gauss was also interested in astronomy. He
devised a new way to calculate accurately the
orbits of heavenly bodies, and developed new
instruments like the heliotrope.
. Gauss also studied magnetism and made
several studies of the magnetism of earth. In
fact, the strength of magnetic fields is still
measured in units named in honor of Gauss.
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Instructor: Samiullah Zewak