Considered by many to be the greatest mathematician who has
ever lived, Gauss was born in Brunswick, Germany, on April 30, 1777. By
the age of three, he was able to perform long computations in his head;
at 10, he studied algebra and analysis. While still a young teenager,
he made many fundamental discoveries. Among these were the method of
least squares for handling statistical data, and a proof that a
17-sided regular polygon can be constructed with a straightedge and
compass. Gauss obtained his Ph.D. in 1799 from the University of
Helmstedt, under the supervision of Pfaff. In his dissertation, he
proved the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. In 1801, Gauss published his monumental book on number theory, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, summarizing previous work in a systematic way and introducing many fundamental ideas of his own, including the notion of modular arithmetic. This book won Gauss great fame among mathematicians.
In 1801, Ceres (an asteroid) was observed by astronomers on three occasions before they lost track of it. In what seemed to be an almost superhuman feat, Gauss used these three observations to calculate the orbit of Ceres. In carrying out his work, he showed that the variation inherent in experimentally derived data follows a bell-shaped curve, now called the Gaussian distribution. Gauss also used the method of least squares in this problem. This achievement established Gauss’s reputation as a scientific genius before he was 25 years old.
In 1807, Gauss became professor of astronomy and director of the new observatory at the University of Göttingen. During the decades to come, Gauss continued to make important contributions not only in nearly all branches of mathematics, but also in astronomy, mechanics, optics, geodesy, and magnetism. Gauss also invented, with the physicist Wilhelm Weber, the first practical telegraph.
The acceptance of complex numbers among mathematicians was brought about by Gauss’s use of them. Gauss coined the term complex numbers and popularized he notation i for the squared root of -1.
Gauss died in Göttingen at the age of 77 on February 23, 1855. At Brunswick, there is a statue of him. Appropriately, the base is in the shape of a 17-point star. In 1989, Germany issued a bank note depicting Gauss and the Gaussian distributions.
