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Carl
Friedrich Gauss
April 1777 – February 1855
Carl
Friedrich Gauss was born April 30, 1777 in Brunswick, Buhy (now
known as Germany). He
was a great Mathematician who started his love for numbers and
calculations at a young age. He
discovered many theories and published books as well as a slew of
papers about number theory.
He is
responsible for discovering Bode's law, the binomial
theorem
and the arithmetic- geometric mean, as well as the law of quadratic
reciprocity and the prime number theorem, the fundamental
theorem of algebra to name a few.
He published
the book Disquisitiones Arithmeticae in the summer of 1801.
There were seven sections, all but the last section, was devoted
to number
theory. He
published his second book, Theoria motus corporum coelestium in
sectionibus conicis Solem ambientium, in 1809, a major two
volume treatise on the motion of celestial bodies. In the first
volume he discussed differential
equations, conic
sections and elliptic orbits, while in the second
volume, the main part of the work, he showed how to estimate and
then to refine the estimation of a planet's orbit.
He married
twice throughout his lifetime.
His first wife, Johann, died after giving birth to their
second son who also died soon after his mother.
His second wife, Minna, was the best friend of his first
wife. Although he had
three children with Minna, it seemed as though it was a marriage
of convenience for Gauss.
He also had
an interest in the question of the possible existence of a non-Euclidean
geometry and in differential
geometry, and published many papers on the subject.
Gauss also did some work in physics as well.
He published a few papers on his findings as well. His
health deteriorated slowly, and Gauss died in his sleep early in
the morning of 23 February, 1855.
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