Biography johann carl friedrich gauss pronunciation

He is widely considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Gauss completed his masterpieces Disquisitiones Arithmeticae and Theoria motus corporum coelestium as a private scholar.

Gauss law pronunciation

He gave the second and third complete proofs of the fundamental theorem of algebra , made contributions to number theory , and developed the theories of binary and ternary quadratic forms. Gauss was instrumental in the identification of Ceres as a dwarf planet. His work on the motion of planetoids disturbed by large planets led to the introduction of the Gaussian gravitational constant and the method of least squares , which he had discovered before Adrien-Marie Legendre published it.

Gauss was in charge of the extensive geodetic survey of the Kingdom of Hanover together with an arc measurement project from to ; he was one of the founders of geophysics and formulated the fundamental principles of magnetism. Fruits of his practical work were the inventions of the heliotrope in , a magnetometer in and — alongside Wilhelm Eduard Weber — the first electromagnetic telegraph in Gauss was the first to discover and study non-Euclidean geometry , coining the term as well.

Gauss refused to publish incomplete work and left several works to be edited posthumously. He believed that the act of learning, not possession of knowledge, provided the greatest enjoyment. Gauss confessed to disliking teaching, but some of his students became influential mathematicians, such as Richard Dedekind and Bernhard Riemann.

His family was of relatively low social status. Gauss characterized his father as honourable and respected, but rough and dominating at home.

Gauss pronunciation german

He was experienced in writing and calculating, whereas his second wife Dorothea, Carl Friedrich's mother, was nearly illiterate. Gauss was a child prodigy in mathematics. When the elementary teachers noticed his intellectual abilities, they brought him to the attention of the Duke of Brunswick who sent him to the local Collegium Carolinum , [ a ] which he attended from to with Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann as one of his teachers.

He was likely a self-taught student in mathematics since he independently rediscovered several theorems.