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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Gauss Karl Friedrich. Biography of the scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
“Gauss reminds me of the image of the highest peak of the Bavarian mountain range, as it appears before the eyes of an observer looking from the north. In this mountain range, in the direction from east to west, individual peaks rise higher and higher, reaching their maximum height in a mighty giant towering in the center abruptly breaking off, this mountain giant is replaced by a lowland of a new formation, into which its spurs penetrate for many tens of kilometers far, and the streams flowing down from it carry moisture and life "(F. Klein). 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: while the task was being 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 been engaged for some time in grouping 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 strive for 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’s simply unbelievable” . 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 a desire that in the monument on his grave was immortalized seventeen. This shows how important Gauss himself attached to his discovery. On the gravestone of Gauss this picture is not, but the monument erected to Gauss in Braunschweig, stands on a seventeen-sided pedestal, however, barely visible 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 theorem of the quadratic law of reciprocity, which he called "golden". Particular cases of this statement were proved by Fermat, Euler, 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, the famous "Arithmetical Investigations" by Gauss 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 the "Arithmetical Investigations". Therefore, he often traveled to nearby Helmstadt, where there was a good library. Here, in 1798, Gauss prepared a dissertation on the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra - the assertion that every algebraic equation has a root, which can be a real or imaginary number, in a word - complex. Gauss critically examines all previous attempts at proof and pursues d'Alembert's idea with great care. 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 his great discovery public, 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 became 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 2000 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 method of least squares, 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 the calculations of Gauss. 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' main concerns. In 1816, he thinks about 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 can't be flattened 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 imprint of reflections on the general principles of mechanics (here the "principle of least constraint" of Gauss 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, invited by Gauss, arrived in Göttingen. Gauss met him in 1828 at the Humboldt house. Gauss was 54 years old, his reclusiveness was legendary, and yet in Weber he found a scientific partner 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 that were collected in different countries by the "Union for the Observation of Terrestrial Magnetism", created by Humboldt after returning 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 letters). Weber returned to Göttingen only in 1849, when Gauss was already 72 years old. Gauss died on February 23, 1855. Author: Samin D.K.
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