Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss

1. Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss Born: 30-Apr-1977Birthplace:Brunswick, GermanyDied: 23-Feb-1855Location of death:Göttingen,GermanyCause of death:unspecifiedRemains:Buried, Albanifriedhof, Göttingen, Germany Gender: MaleRaceorEthnicity: WhiteSexualorientation:StraightOccupation:Mathematician,Scientist Nationality: GermanyExecutivesummary:PerhapsthegreatestGermanmathematician

2. In primary school his teacher tried to occupy pupils by making them add a list of integers. The young Gauss reputedly produced the correct answer within seconds, to the astonishment of his teacher. Gauss' presumed method, which supposes the list of numbers was from 1 to 100, was to realise that pairwise addition of terms from opposite ends of the list yielded identical intermediate sums: 1 + 100 = 101 2 + 99 = 101 3 + 98 = 101so on, for a total sum of 50 × 101 = 5050

3. He helped his father with payrollaccounts at the age of 3. • He knew seven languagesby the age of 19.Theseare; • English • German • Danish • Spanish • French • Latin • Greek

4. Proved construction of a 17 sided polygon with only a compasand straight edge,thought impossible for 2000 years.

5. Gauss wanted a heptadecagon placed on his gravestone, but the carver refused, saying it would look like a circle. The heptadecagon is used as the shape of the pedestal with a statue honoring Gauss in his home town of Braunschweig.

6. "Ask her to wait a moment - I am almost done. " while working, when informed that his wife is dying. Gauss's personal life was overshadowed by the early death of his first wife, Johanna Osthoff, in 1809, soon followed by the death of one child, Louis. Gauss plunged into a depressionfrom which he never fully recovered. He married again, to Johanna's best friend named FriedericaWilhelmineWaldeck but commonly known as Minna. This second marriage does not seem to have been very happy as it was plagued by Minna's continuous illness. When his second wife died in 1831 after a long illness,one of his daughters, Therese, took over the household and cared for Gauss until the end of his life. Wife:JohannaOsthoff (b. 1780, d. 1809, twosons, onedaughter)Son: Joseph (b. 1806, d. 1873)Daughter:Wilhelmina (b. 1808, d. 1846)Son: Louis ("Ludwig", b. 1809, d. 1810)Wife:FriedericaWilhelmineWaldeck (d. 1831)Son:Eugene (b. 1811, d. 1896)Son: Wilhelm (b. 1813, d. 1879)Daughter:Therese (b. 1816, d. 1864).

7. He discoveredthat every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most three triangular numbersand then jotted down in his diary the famous note: "ΕΥΡΗΚΑ! num = Δ + Δ + Δ". Whatis triangularnumbers ? -The triangle numbers are given by the following explicit formulas:

8. Eureka!(num) = + + Triangular Numbers 1 3 6 10 15 This entry from Gauss’ diary meant that every number could be written as a sum of three or fewer triangular numbers.

9. TriangularNumbers

10. - Thefirst ten triangularnumbersare ; 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55. ForExample ; • 7 = 6 + 1 • 8 = 6 + 1 + 1 • 9 = 6 + 3 • 37 = 21 + 15 + 1 • 57 = 36 + 15 +6

12. REFERENCES • http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Gauss.html • http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/men/gauss.html • Hall, Tord. (1970). Carl Friedrich Gauss. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. • Reimer, Luetta. (1990). Mathematicians Are People, Too. Palo Alto, CA: Dale Seymour Publications. • http://www.nndb.com/people/363/000087102/ • Gauss: A Biographical Study, 1981, BY: W. K. Bühler

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