Karl Gauss short biography. Great German scientists. Stars on the tip of a pencil

Carl Friedrich Gauss(German Carl Friedrich Gauß) - an outstanding German mathematician, astronomer and physicist, considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.

Carl Friedrich Gauss was born on April 30, 1777. in the Duchy of Brunswick. Gauss's grandfather was a poor peasant, his father was a gardener, a bricklayer, and a canal caretaker. Gauss developed an extraordinary aptitude for mathematics at an early age.. One day, while calculating his father, his three-year-old son noticed an error in the calculations. The calculation was checked and the number given by the boy was correct. Little Karl was lucky with a teacher: M. Bartels appreciated the exceptional talent of young Gauss and managed to get him a scholarship from the Duke of Brunswick.

This helped Gauss to finish college, where he studied Newton, Euler, Lagrange. Already there, Gaus made several discoveries in higher mathematics, including proving the law of reciprocity of quadratic residues. True, Legendre discovered this most important law earlier, but he failed to prove it rigorously; Euler did not succeed either.

From 1795 to 1798 Gauss studied at the University of Göttingen. This is the most fruitful period in the life of Gauss. In 1796, Carl Friedrich Gauss proved the possibility of constructing a regular seventeenagon using a compass and straightedge. Moreover, he solved the problem of constructing regular polygons to the end and found a criterion for the possibility of constructing a regular n-gon using a compass and a straightedge: if n is a prime number, then it must be of the form n=2^(2^k)+1 (number Farm). Gauss valued this discovery very much and bequeathed to depict a regular 17-gon inscribed in a circle on his grave.

March 30, 1796, the day when the regular seventeen was built, Gauss's diary begins - a chronicle of his remarkable discoveries. The next entry in the diary appeared on April 8th. It reported on the proof of the theorem of the quadratic law of reciprocity, which he called "golden". Gauss made two discoveries in just ten days, a month before he turned 19.

From 1799, Gauss was Privatdozent at the University of Braunschweig. The Duke continued to patronize the young genius. He paid for the publication of his doctoral dissertation (1799) and granted a good scholarship. After 1801, without breaking with number theory, Gauss expanded his circle of interests to include the natural sciences.

Carl Gauss gained world fame after developing a method for calculating the elliptical orbit of the planet according to three observations. The application of this method to the minor planet Ceres made it possible to find it again in the sky after it was lost.

On the night of December 31 to January 1, the famous German astronomer Olbers, using Gauss data, discovered a planet that was named Ceres. In March 1802, another similar planet, Pallas, was discovered, and Gauss immediately calculated its orbit.

Karl Gauss outlined his methods for calculating orbits in the famous Theories of motion of celestial bodies(lat. Theoria motus corporum coelestium, 1809). The book describes the method of least squares used by him, and to this day remains one of the most common methods for processing experimental data.

In 1806, his generous patron, the Duke of Brunswick, dies from a wound received in the war with Napoleon. Several countries vied with each other to invite Gauss to serve. On the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt, Gauss was appointed professor at Göttingen and director of the Göttingen Observatory. He held this position until his death.

Fundamental research is associated with the name of Gauss in almost all major areas of mathematics: algebra, mathematical analysis, the theory of functions of a complex variable, differential and non-Euclidean geometry, probability theory, as well as in astronomy, geodesy and mechanics.

Published in 1809 a new masterpiece of Gauss - "Theory of motion of celestial bodies", where the canonical theory of taking into account perturbations of orbits is presented.

In 1810, Gauss received the prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences and the gold medal of the Royal Society of London., was elected to several academies. The famous comet of 1812 was observed everywhere using the calculations of Gauss. In 1828, Gauss' main geometric memoir, General Investigations on Curved Surfaces, was published. The memoir is devoted to the internal geometry of a surface, that is, to what is connected with the structure of this surface itself, and not with its position in space.

Research in the field of physics, which Gauss was engaged in since the early 1830s, belong to different sections of this science. In 1832, he created an absolute system of measures, introducing three basic units: 1 sec, 1 mm and 1 kg. In 1833, together with W. Weber, he built the first electromagnetic telegraph in Germany, which connected the observatory and the Physics Institute in Göttingen, performed a lot of experimental work on terrestrial magnetism, invented a unipolar magnetometer, and then a bifilar one (also together with W. Weber), created the foundations of potential theory , in particular, he formulated the fundamental theorem of electrostatics (the Gauss-Ostrogradsky theorem). In 1840 he developed the theory of imaging in complex optical systems. In 1835 he created a magnetic observatory at the Göttingen Astronomical Observatory.

In every scientific field, his depth of penetration into the material, the courage of thought and the significance of the result were amazing. Gauss was called "the king of mathematicians". He discovered the ring of integer complex Gaussian numbers, created the theory of divisibility for them, and with their help solved many algebraic problems.

Gauss died on February 23, 1855 in Göttingen. Contemporaries remember Gauss as a cheerful, friendly person with a great sense of humor. In honor of Gauss are named: a crater on the Moon, a minor planet No. 1001 (Gaussia), a unit of measurement of magnetic induction in the CGS system, the Gaussberg volcano in Antarctica.

Carl Gauss (1777-1855), German mathematician, astronomer and physicist. He created the theory of "primordial" roots from which the construction of a seventeen-gon followed. One of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Carl Friedrich Gauss was born on April 30, 1777 in Braunschweig. He inherited good health from his father's relatives, and a bright intellect from his mother's relatives.
At the age of seven, Karl Friedrich entered the Catherine Folk School. Since they started counting there from the third grade, for the first two years no attention was paid to little Gauss. Pupils usually entered the third grade at the age of ten and studied there until confirmation (fifteen years). The teacher Buettner had to work simultaneously with children of different ages and different backgrounds. Therefore, he usually gave part of the students long calculation tasks in order to be able to talk with other students. Once a group of students, among whom was Gauss, was asked to sum natural numbers from 1 to 100. As the task progressed, the students had to put their slates on the teacher's table. The order of the boards was taken into account when scoring. Ten-year-old Karl put down his board as soon as Buettner finished dictating the task. To everyone's surprise, only he had the correct answer. The secret was simple: as long as the task was dictated. Gauss managed to rediscover the formula for the sum of an arithmetic progression! The fame of the miracle child spread throughout little Braunschweig.
In 1788, Gauss moved to the gymnasium. However, it does not teach mathematics. Classical languages ​​are studied here. Gauss enjoys studying languages ​​and is making such progress that he does not even know what he wants to become - a mathematician or a philologist.
Gauss is known at court. In 1791 he was presented to Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick. The boy visits the palace and entertains the courtiers with the art of counting. Thanks to the patronage of the Duke, Gauss was able to enter the University of Göttingen in October 1795. At first he listens to lectures on philology and almost never attends lectures on mathematics. But this does not mean that he does not study mathematics.
In 1795, Gauss embraces a passionate interest in whole numbers. Unfamiliar with any kind of literature, he had to create everything for himself. And here he again manifests himself as an outstanding calculator, paving the way into the unknown. In the autumn of the same year, Gauss moved to Göttingen and literally swallowed the literature that came across to him for the first time: Euler and Lagrange.
“March 30, 1796, the day of creative baptism comes for him. - writes F. Klein. - Gauss has for some time been engaged in the grouping of roots from unity on the basis of his theory of "primordial" roots. And then one morning, waking up, he suddenly clearly and distinctly realized that the construction of a seventeen-gon follows from his theory ... This event was a turning point in the life of Gauss. He decides to devote himself not to philology, but exclusively to mathematics.
Gauss' work becomes for a long time an unattainable example of a mathematical discovery. One of the creators of non-Euclidean geometry, Janos Bolyai, called it "the most brilliant discovery of our time, or even of all time." How difficult it was to comprehend this discovery. Thanks to the letters to the homeland of the great Norwegian mathematician Abel, who proved the unsolvability of the equation of the fifth degree in radicals, we know about the difficult path that he went through while studying the theory of Gauss. In 1825, Abel writes from Germany: "Even if Gauss is the greatest genius, he obviously did not want everyone to understand this at once ..." Gauss's work inspires Abel to build a theory in which "there are so many wonderful theorems that it is simply not believe." There is no doubt that Gauss also influenced Galois.
Gauss himself retained a touching love for his first discovery for life.
“They say that Archimedes bequeathed to build a monument in the form of a ball and a cylinder over his grave in memory of the fact that he found the ratio of the volumes of the cylinder and the ball inscribed in it - 3: 2. Like Archimedes, Gauss expressed the desire that a seventeen-sided monument be immortalized in the monument on his grave. This shows the importance Gauss himself attached to his discovery. There is no such drawing on the gravestone of Gauss, the monument erected to Gauss in Braunschweig stands on a seventeen-cornered pedestal, however, barely noticeable to the viewer, ”wrote G. Weber.
March 30, 1796, the day when the regular seventeen was built, Gauss's diary begins - a chronicle of his remarkable discoveries. The next entry in the diary appeared on April 8th. It reported on the proof of the quadratic law of reciprocity theorem, which he called "golden". Particular cases of this assertion were proved by Ferm, Euler, and Lagrange. Euler formulated a general conjecture, the incomplete proof of which was given by Legendre. On April 8, Gauss found a complete proof of Euler's conjecture. However, Gauss did not yet know about the work of his great predecessors. He walked the whole difficult path to the “golden theorem” on his own!
Gauss made two great discoveries in just ten days, a month before he turned 19! One of the most surprising aspects of the “Gauss phenomenon” is that in his first works he practically did not rely on the achievements of his predecessors, discovering, as it were, anew in a short time what had been done in number theory in a century and a half by the works of the greatest mathematicians.
In 1801 Gauss's famous "Arithmetical Investigations" came out. This huge book (more than 500 large format pages) contains the main results of Gauss. The book was published at the expense of the Duke and is dedicated to him. In its published form, the book consisted of seven parts. There was not enough money for the eighth part. In this part, we were supposed to talk about the generalization of the law of reciprocity to degrees higher than the second, in particular, about the biquadratic law of reciprocity. Gauss found a complete proof of the biquadratic law only on October 23, 1813, and in his diaries he noted that this coincided with the birth of his son.
Outside of the "Arithmetical Investigations" Gauss, in essence, no longer dealt with number theory. He only thought through and completed what was conceived in those years.
"Arithmetic studies" had a huge impact on the further development of number theory and algebra. The laws of reciprocity still occupy one of the central places in algebraic number theory. In Braunschweig, Gauss did not have the literature necessary to work on Arithmetic Research. Therefore, he often traveled to nearby Helmstadt, where there was a good library. Here, in 1798, Gauss prepared a dissertation devoted to the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra - the statement that every algebraic equation has a root, which can be a real or imaginary number, in a word - complex. Gauss critically analyzes all previous experiments and proofs and with great care takes the idea to Lambert. Still, an impeccable proof did not turn out, since a rigorous theory of continuity was lacking. Subsequently, Gauss came up with three more proofs of the Main Theorem (the last time - in 1848).
The "Mathematical Age" of Gauss is less than ten years old. At the same time, most of the time was occupied by works that remained unknown to contemporaries (elliptic functions).
Gauss believed that he could take his time in publishing his results, and that was the case for thirty years. But in 1827, two young mathematicians at once - Abel and Jacobi - published much of what he had received.
Gauss's work on non-Euclidean geometry became known only when the posthumous archive was published. Thus Gauss ensured that he could work in peace by refusing to make public his great discovery, sparking a debate that continues to this day about the admissibility of his position.
With the advent of the new century, Gauss' scientific interests shifted decisively away from pure mathematics. He will turn to her episodically many times, and each time get results worthy of a genius. In 1812 he published a paper on the hypergeometric function. The merit of Gauss in the geometric interpretation of complex numbers is widely known.
Astronomy became a new hobby for Gauss. One of the reasons why he took up the new science was prosaic. Gauss held a modest position as Privatdozent in Braunschweig, receiving 6 thalers a month.
A pension of 400 thalers from the patron duke did not improve his situation so much that he could support his family, and he was thinking about marriage. It was not easy to get a chair in mathematics somewhere, and Gauss did not really strive for active teaching. The expanding network of observatories made the career of an astronomer more accessible, Gauss began to be interested in astronomy while still in Göttingen. He made some observations in Braunschweig, and he spent part of the ducal pension on the purchase of a sextant. He is looking for a decent computational problem.
A scientist calculates the trajectory of a proposed new large planet. The German astronomer Olbers, relying on the calculations of Gauss, found a planet (it was called Ceres). It was a real sensation!
March 25, 1802 Olbers discovers another planet - Pallas. Gauss quickly calculates its orbit, showing that it is located between Mars and Jupiter. The effectiveness of Gaussian computational methods has become undeniable for astronomers.
Gauss comes to recognition. One of the signs of this was his election as a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Soon he was invited to take the place of director of the St. Petersburg Observatory. At the same time, Olbers is making efforts to save Gauss for Germany. Back in 1802, he proposed to the curator of the University of Göttingen to invite Gauss to the post of director of the newly organized observatory. Olbers writes at the same time that Gauss "has a positive aversion to the department of mathematics." Consent was given, but the move took place only at the end of 1807. During this time, Gauss married. “Life appears to me in the spring with always new bright colors,” he exclaims. In 1806, the duke, to whom Gauss, apparently, was sincerely attached, dies of his wounds. Now nothing keeps him in Braunschweig.
Gauss's life in Göttingen was not easy. In 1809, after the birth of a son, his wife died, and then the child himself. In addition, Napoleon imposed a heavy indemnity on Göttingen. Gauss himself had to pay an unbearable tax of 2,000 francs. Olbers and, right in Paris, Laplace tried to deposit money for him. Both times Gauss proudly refused.
However, there was another benefactor, this time anonymous, and there was no one to return the money. Only much later did they learn that it was the Elector of Mainz, a friend of Goethe. “Death is dearer to me than such a life,” writes Gauss between notes on the theory of elliptic functions. Those around him did not appreciate his work, they considered him at least an eccentric. Olbers reassures Gauss, saying that one should not rely on the understanding of people: "they must be pitied and served."
In 1809, the famous "Theory of the motion of celestial bodies revolving around the Sun along conic sections" was published. Gauss sets out his methods for calculating orbits. To convince himself of the strength of his method, he repeats the calculation of the orbit of the comet of 1769, which Euler once calculated in three days of intense calculation. It took Gauss an hour. The book outlined the least squares method, which remains to this day one of the most common methods for processing observational results.
In 1810, there were a large number of honors: Gauss received the prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences and the gold medal of the Royal Society of London, was elected to several academies.
Regular studies in astronomy continued almost until his death. The famous comet of 1812 (which "foreshadowed" the fire of Moscow!) was observed everywhere using Gaussian calculations. August 28, 1851 Gauss observed a solar eclipse. Gauss had many astronomer students: Schumacher, Gerling, Nikolai, Struve. The largest German geometers Moebius and Staudt studied not geometry, but astronomy from him. He was in active correspondence with many astronomers on a regular basis.
By 1820, the center of Gauss's practical interests had shifted to geodesy. We are indebted to geodesy for the fact that for a comparatively short time Mathematics again became one of Gauss's main activities. In 1816, he thinks of generalizing the basic task of cartography - the task of mapping one surface to another "so that the mapping is similar to that displayed in the smallest detail."
In 1828, Gauss' main geometric memoir, General Investigations on Curved Surfaces, was published. The memoir is devoted to the internal geometry of a surface, that is, to what is connected with the structure of this surface itself, and not with its position in space.
It turns out that "without leaving the surface", you can find out whether it is a curve or not. A “real” curved surface cannot be turned flat under any bending. Gauss proposed a numerical characteristic of the measure of surface curvature.
By the end of the twenties, Gauss, who had crossed the fifty-year mark, began to search for new areas of scientific activity for himself. This is evidenced by two publications in 1829 and 1830. The first of them bears the stamp of reflections on the general principles of mechanics (here Gauss's "principle of least constraint" is built); the other is devoted to the study of capillary phenomena. Gauss decides to pursue physics, but his narrow interests have not yet been determined.
In 1831 he tries to study crystallography. This is a very difficult year in the life of Gauss "his second wife dies, he begins to experience severe insomnia. In the same year, the 27-year-old physicist Wilhelm Weber Gauss, who was invited at the initiative of Gauss, comes to Göttingen, met him in 1828 in the house of Humboldt Gauss was 54 years old , his reclusiveness was legendary, and yet in Weber he found a partner in the pursuit of science, such as he had never had before.
The interests of Gauss and Weber lay in the field of electrodynamics and terrestrial magnetism. Their activity had not only theoretical, but also practical results. In 1833 they invent the electromagnetic telegraph. The first telegraph connected the magnetic observatory with the city of Neuburg.
The study of terrestrial magnetism was based both on observations at the magnetic observatory set up in Göttingen and on materials collected in various countries by the "Union for the Observation of Terrestrial Magnetism", created by Humboldt after his return from South America. At the same time, Gauss creates one of the most important chapters of mathematical physics - the theory of potential.
The joint studies of Gauss and Weber were interrupted in 1843, when Weber, along with six other professors, was expelled from Göttingen for signing a letter to the king, which indicated violations of the constitution by the latter (Gauss did not sign the letter) Weber returned to Göttingen only in 1849, when Gauss was already 72 years old.

If people could live for several centuries, then this year the famous German mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss would celebrate his 242nd birthday. And who knows what other discoveries he would make ... But, unfortunately, this does not happen.

Gauss was born on April 30, 1777 in the German city of Braunschweig. His parents were the most ordinary people. His father had many specialties, because in order to somehow make ends meet, he had to work as a bricklayer, and a gardener, and equip fountains.

Photo: Scanned by User:Brunswyk, picture taken before 1914, Wikimedia (public domain)

Karl was very young when it became clear to others that he was a genius. At the age of three, the child already knew how to read and count. Once he even managed to find an error in his father's calculations. And throughout his life, he did most of the calculations in his mind.

At the age of 7, the boy was assigned to school. There they immediately drew attention to him, since he was the best at solving examples. While still at school, he began to study the classic works on mathematics.

Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand also noticed his amazing mathematical abilities. He allocated funds for the boy's education, first at the gymnasium, and then at the university. In those days, a child from a working-class family could hardly have received such an education.

Photo: By Siegfried Detlev Bendixen (published in “Astronomische Nachrichten” 1828), via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

In 1798 he completed his Arithmetic Studies. At that time he was only 21 years old. At the university, Gauss does not just study various disciplines. He proved many significant theorems and made important discoveries.

In 1799, Gauss defended his doctoral dissertation, in which he first proved the fundamental theorem of algebra. The publication of the dissertation was paid for by the duke, who all the time watched the activities of the young genius.

Over time, Gauss expanded the scope of his research. He took up astronomy. The reason was that the astronomer D. Piazzi discovered a new planet and called it Ceres. But soon after the discovery, the planet disappeared from view. Gauss, using his new computational method, did the most complicated calculations in a few hours, and accurately indicated the place where the planet would appear. And they did find it there. This brought Gauss all-European fame. He becomes a member of many scientific societies.

Photo: (Public domain)

In 1806 he became director of the Göttingen Observatory. And in 1809, the work "The Theory of the Motion of Celestial Bodies" was completed. In 1810 he received a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences and a gold medal from the Royal Society of London.

Gauss devoted much attention to the publication of his works. He never published those works that, in his opinion, were not yet completed.

The genius of mathematics died on February 23, 1855 in Göttingen. By order of the King of Hanover, George V, a medal was minted in his honor, engraved with a portrait of Gauss and his honorary title - "King of Mathematicians".

And today we enjoy the fruits of the genius of the king of mathematicians. For example, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss proposed an algorithm for calculating the date of Easter. As you know, the date of Easter falls on different dates every year, and this algorithm allows you to calculate dates for any year in the past and in the future.

Also, thanks to the significant contribution of the scientist to the study of electromagnetism, in English, the actions to demagnetize ships, as well as during the widespread use of televisions and monitors with kinescopes, the demagnetization of a cathode ray tube was called simply and succinctly: degauss.

Fans of tinkering with electronics are also probably familiar with an interesting device capable of imparting powerful acceleration to bodies using an electromagnetic field, known as the “Gauss gun”.

Main photo: Christian Albrecht Jensen, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

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From the first years, Gauss was distinguished by a phenomenal memory and outstanding abilities in the exact sciences. Throughout his life, he improved his knowledge and counting system, which brought to mankind many great inventions and immortal works.

The Little Prince of Mathematics

Carl was born in Braunschweig, in Northern Germany. This event took place on April 30, 1777 in the family of a poor worker, Gerhard Diederich Gauss. Although Karl was the first and only child in the family, his father rarely had time to raise the boy. In order to somehow feed his family, he had to grab every opportunity to earn money: arranging fountains, gardening, stone work.

Gauss spent most of his childhood with his mother Dorothea. The woman doted on her only son and, in the future, was insanely proud of his successes. She was a cheerful, intelligent and determined woman, but, due to her simple origin, she was illiterate. Therefore, when little Carl asked to teach him how to write and count, helping him turned out to be a difficult task.

However, the boy did not lose his enthusiasm. At every opportunity, he asked adults: “What is this icon?”, “What letter is this?”, “How to read it?”. In such a simple way, he was able to learn the entire alphabet and all the numbers already at the age of three. At the same time, the simplest operations of counting also succumbed to him: addition and subtraction.

Once, when Gerhard again hired a contract for stone work, he paid the workers in the presence of little Karl. An attentive child in his mind managed to count all the amounts voiced by his father, and immediately found an error in his calculations. Gerhard doubted the correctness of his three-year-old son, but, after counting, he really discovered an inaccuracy.

Gingerbread instead of a whip

When Karl turned 7, his parents sent him to the Catherine's Folk School. The middle-aged and strict teacher Byuttner was in charge of all affairs here. His main method of education was corporal punishment (however, as elsewhere at that time). As a deterrent, Buettner carried an impressive whip, which at first hit little Gauss as well.

Carl succeeded in changing his anger to mercy rather quickly. As soon as the first lesson in arithmetic was completed, Buttner radically changed his attitude towards the smart boy. Gauss was able to solve complex examples literally on the fly, using original and non-standard methods.

So at the next lesson, Buttner set the task: to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100. As soon as the teacher finished explaining the task, Gauss had already handed over his plate with a ready answer. He later explained: “I did not add the numbers in order, but divided them in pairs. If we add 1 and 100, we get 101. If we add 99 and 2, we get 101, and so on. I multiplied 101 by 50 and got the answer." After that, Gauss became a favorite student.

The boy's talents were noticed not only by Buttner, but also by his assistant, Christian Bartels. With his small salary, he bought mathematics textbooks, which he himself studied and taught ten-year-old Karl. These classes led to stunning results - already in 1791 the boy was introduced to the Duke of Brunswick and his entourage, as one of the most talented and promising students.

Compasses, ruler and Göttingen

The duke was delighted with the young talent and granted Gauss a scholarship of 10 thalers a year. Only thanks to this, the boy from a poor family managed to continue his studies at the most prestigious school - the Carolina College. There he received the necessary training and in 1895 easily entered the University of Göttingen.

Here Gauss makes one of his greatest discoveries (according to the scientist himself). The young man managed to calculate the construction of a 17-gon and reproduce it using a ruler and a compass. In other words, he solved the equation x17-1 = 0 in quadratic radicals. This seemed to Karl so significant that on the same day he began to keep a diary in which he bequeathed to draw a 17-gon on his tombstone.

Working in the same direction, Gauss manages to construct a regular heptagon and nonagon and prove that it is possible to construct polygons with 3, 5, 17, 257, and 65337 sides, as well as with any of these numbers multiplied by a power of two. Later, these numbers will be called "simple Gaussian".

Stars on the tip of a pencil

In 1798 Karl left the university for unknown reasons and returned to his native Braunschweig. At the same time, the young mathematician does not even think of suspending his scientific activity. On the contrary, the time spent in his native lands became the most fruitful period of his work.

Already in 1799, Gauss proved the fundamental theorem of algebra: “The number of real and complex roots of a polynomial is equal to its degree”, explores complex roots of unity, quadratic roots and residues, derives and proves the quadratic reciprocity law. From the same year he became Privatdozent at the University of Braunschweig.

In 1801, the book "Arithmetical Investigations" was published, where the scientist shares his discoveries on almost 500 pages. It did not include a single unfinished study or raw material - all data is as accurate as possible and brought to a logical conclusion.

At the same time, he was interested in astronomy, or rather, mathematical applications in this area. Thanks to only one correct calculation, Gauss found on paper what astronomers had lost in the sky - the small planet Cirrera (1801, G. Piazzi). Several more planets were found by this method, in particular, Pallas (1802, G.V. Olbers). Later, Carl Friedrich Gauss would become the author of an invaluable work called The Theory of the Motion of Celestial Bodies (1809) and many studies in the field of the hypergeometric function and the convergence of infinite series.

Marriages without calculation

Here, in Braunschweig, Karl meets his first wife, Joanna Osthof. They married on November 22, 1804 and lived happily for five years. Joanna managed to give birth to Gauss son Joseph and daughter Minna. During the birth of her third child, Louis, the woman died. Soon the baby himself died, and Karl was left alone with two children. In letters to his comrades, the mathematician has repeatedly stated that these five years in his life were “eternal spring”, which, unfortunately, has ended.

This misfortune in the life of Gauss was not the last. Around the same time, a friend and mentor of the scientist, the Duke of Brunswick, dies from mortal wounds. With a heavy heart, Karl leaves his homeland and returns to the university, where he accepts the department of mathematics and the post of director of the astronomical laboratory.

In Göttingen, he becomes close to the daughter of a local councilor, Minna, who was a good friend of his late wife. August 4, 1810 Gauss marries a girl, but their marriage from the very beginning is accompanied by quarrels and conflicts. Due to his turbulent personal life, Karl even refused a place at the Berlin Academy of Sciences, Minna gave birth to three children to the scientist - two sons and a daughter.

New inventions, discoveries and students

The high post that Gauss held at the university obliged the scientist to a teaching career. His lectures were distinguished by the freshness of his views, and he himself was kind and sympathetic, which evoked a response from the students. However, Gauss himself did not like teaching and felt that teaching others was wasting his time.

In 1818 Carl Friedrich Gauss was one of the first to start work on non-Euclidean geometry. Fearing criticism and ridicule, he never publishes his discoveries, however, he vehemently supports Lobachevsky. The same fate befell the quaternions, which Gauss originally investigated under the name "mutations". The discovery was attributed to Hamilton, who published his work 30 years after the death of the German scientist. Elliptic functions first appeared in the work of Jacobi, Abel and Cauchy, although the main contribution was due to Gauss.

A few years later, Gauss takes a great interest in geodesy, surveys the Kingdom of Hanover using the least squares method, describes the actual forms of the earth's surface and invents a new device - the heliotrope. Despite the simplicity of the design (a spotting scope and two flat mirrors), this invention became a new word in geodetic measurements. The result of research in this area were the works of the scientist: "General studies on curved surfaces" (1827) and "Studies on the subjects of higher geodesy" (1842-47), as well as the concept of "Gaussian curvature", which gave rise to differential geometry.

In 1825, Carl Friedrich makes another discovery that immortalized his name - Gaussian complex numbers. He successfully uses them to solve equations of high degrees, which made it possible to conduct a number of studies in the field of real numbers. The main result was the work "The Theory of Biquadratic Residues".

Towards the end of his life, Gauss changed his attitude to teaching and began to give his students not only lecture hours, but also free time. His work and personal example had a huge impact on young mathematicians: Riemann and Weber. Friendship with the first led to the creation of "Riemannian geometry", and with the second - to the invention of the electromagnetic telegraph (1833).

In 1849, for services to the university, Gauss was awarded the title of "honorary citizen of Göttingen". By this time, his circle of friends already included such famous scientists as Lobachevsky, Laplace, Olbers, Humboldt, Bartels and Baum.

Since 1852, the good health that Charles inherited from his father began to crack. Avoiding meetings with representatives of medicine, Gauss hoped to cope with the disease himself, but this time his calculation turned out to be wrong. He died on February 23, 1855, in Göttingen, surrounded by friends and associates who would later award him the title of king of mathematics.

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss is called the king of mathematicians. His discoveries in algebra and geometry gave direction to the development of science in the 19th century. In addition, he made significant contributions to astronomy, geodesy and physics.

Karl Gauss was born on April 30, 1777 in the German Duchy of Braunschweig in the family of a poor canal keeper. It is noteworthy that his parents did not remember the exact date of birth - Karl himself brought it out in the future.

Already at the age of 2, the boy's relatives recognized him as a genius. At the age of 3 he read, wrote and corrected his father's counting errors. Gauss later recalled that he learned to count before he could speak.

At school, the boy's genius was noticed by his teacher Martin Bartels, who later taught Nikolai Lobachevsky. The teacher sent a petition to the Duke of Brunswick and obtained a scholarship for the young man at the largest technical university in Germany.

From 1792 to 1795, Karl Gauss spent within the walls of the University of Braunschweig, where he studied the works of Lagrange, Newton, Euler. The next 3 years he studied at the University of Göttingen. The outstanding German mathematician Abraham Kestner became his teacher.

In the second year of study, the scientist begins to keep a diary of observations. Later biographers will draw from him many discoveries that Gauss did not disclose during his lifetime.

In 1798, Karl returned to his homeland. The Duke pays for the publication of the scientist's doctoral dissertation and grants him a scholarship. Gauss remained in Braunschweig until 1807. During this period, he holds the position of Privatdozent of the local university.

In 1806, the patron of a young scientist died in the war. But Carl Gauss had already made a name for himself. He is vying with invitations to various European countries. The mathematician goes to work in the German university city of Göttingen.

At the new place, he receives the position of professor and director of the observatory. Here he remains until his death.

Karl Gauss received wide recognition during his lifetime. He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, was awarded the prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences, the gold medal of the Royal Society of London, became a laureate of the Copley medal and a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Mathematical discoveries

Carl Gauss made fundamental discoveries in almost all areas of algebra and geometry. The most fruitful period is the time of his studies at the University of Göttingen.

While at a collegiate college, he proved the law of reciprocity of quadratic residues. And at the university, a mathematician managed to construct a regular seventeen-sided triangle with the help of a ruler and a compass and solved the problem of constructing regular polygons. The scientist valued this achievement the most. So much so that he wanted to engrave on his posthumous monument a circle in which there would be a figure with 17 corners.

In 1801, Klaus published the work "Arithmetic Research". In 30 years, another masterpiece of the German mathematician will appear - "The Theory of Biquadratic Residues". It provides proofs of important arithmetic theorems for real and complex numbers.

Gauss was the first to present proofs of the fundamental theorem of algebra and began to study the intrinsic geometry of surfaces. He also discovered the ring of complex integer Gaussian numbers, solved many mathematical problems, derived the theory of comparisons, laid the foundations of Riemannian geometry.

Achievements in other scientific fields

Vice heliotrope. Brass, gold, glass, mahogany (created before 1801). With a handwritten inscription: "Property of Mr. Gauss." Located at the University of Göttingen, the first Physics Institute.

The real fame of Carl Gauss was brought by the calculations with which he determined the position, discovered in 1801.

Subsequently, the scientist repeatedly returns to astronomical research. In 1811, he calculates the orbit of the newly discovered comet, makes calculations to determine the location of the comet "Fire of Moscow" in 1812.

In the 20s of the 19th century, Gauss worked in the field of geodesy. It was he who created a new science - higher geodesy. He also develops computational methods for conducting geodetic surveys, publishes a cycle of works on the theory of surfaces, included in the publication "Investigations on Curved Surfaces" in 1822.

The scientist also turns to physics. He develops the theory of capillarity and lens systems, lays the foundations of electromagnetism. Together with Wilhelm Weber, he invents the electric telegraph.

Personality of Carl Gauss

Carl Gauss was a maximalist. He never published raw, even brilliant works, considering them imperfect. Because of this, in a number of many discoveries, he was ahead of other mathematicians.

The scientist was also a polyglot. He spoke and wrote fluently in Latin, English, and French. And at the age of 62 he mastered Russian in order to read the works of Lobachevsky in the original.

Gauss was married twice, became the father of six children. Unfortunately, both spouses died early, and one of the children died in infancy.

Karl Gauss died in Göttingen on February 23, 1855. In his honor, by order of the King of Hanover, George V, a medal was minted with a portrait of a scientist and his title - "King of Mathematicians".