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The Google Doodle today celebrates the life of lauded mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss - who made an unusual gravestone wish before his death.
The mathematician had an exceptional influence in many fields of maths and science and would have been 241 years old on April 30 2018.
He is sometimes called 'The Prince of Mathematicians'.
Gauss, whose name is spelt Gauß in his native German, was born in 1777 and he died in 1855.
Although his mother was illiterate Gauss was a child prodigy who, according to legend, worked out how to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100 when he was just eight.
Gauss noticed that if he was to split the numbers into two groups (1 to 50 and 51 to100), he could add them together vertically to get a sum of 101. Gauss realized then that his final total would be 50(101) = 5050.
Gauss' discoveries regarding the construction of polygons pleased him so much he requested a regular heptadecagon (that is,a 17-sided shape) be inscribed on his tombstone.
(Image: L‡szl— NŽmeth/Wikipedia)
(Image: Google)
However the stonemason decline because the construction would be difficult and essentially just look like a circle.
His magnum opus, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, was completed when he was just 21 in 1798.
Three years later Gauss announced he had calculated the orbit of the asteroid Ceres. which is the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter.
He married in 1805 and had a son and a daughter with her before she died in 1809.
(Image: Science Photo Library RF)
(Image: SSPL)
Gauss remarried a year later and had three more children but biographers say the mathematician was never quite the same without his first wife suffering from bouts of depression, so he grew to dominate his children.
He did not want any of his sons to enter mathematics or science for "fear of lowering the family name", as he believed none of them would surpass his own achievements.
His second wife died in 1831.
That same year Gauss started to collaborate with physics professor Wilhelm Weber , leading to new knowledge in magnetism and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity.
(Image: Chi And H/Wikipedia)
It was at this time he formulated Gauss's Law, relating the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric field.
Together with Weber they produced the first electromechanical telegraph in 1833 which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Gottingen.
In 1840 he published the influential Dioptrische Untersuchungen. Gauss didn't write often with his life motto being "few, but ripe".
Five years later he became a member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands.
He died of a heart attack in 1855 with his brain preserved and studied by Rudolf Wagner.
It was found to have mass slightly above average at 1,492 grams and a larger cerebral area.
In his extraordinary lifetime Gauss contributed to a number of fields including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, magnetic fields, astronomy, matrix theory and optics.
Google • Getty Gauss was a German mathematician born on April 30, 1777 in Brunswick
Gauss was a German mathematician born on April 30, 1777 in Brunswick. He contributed to a number of fields in the subject, including: number theory, algebra, geophysics, mechanics and statistics. The laudable work of Gauss, otherwise spelt Gauß in German, is one of the reasons he earned the nickname “The Prince of Mathematicians”. Gauss’ mother was illiterate, but that did not stop him from cementing himself as a legendary figure in the fields of maths and science.
One of the mathematician’s greatest achievements came in 1786 after discovering a heptadecagon, or a 17-sided polygon, could be made with a compass and straightedge on March 30. After making such a discovery, Gauss requested a regular heptadecagon be inscribed on his tombstone when he died. The stonemason responsible for putting together his stone refused - he claimed such construction would have been too difficult and that the unique qualities of the heptadecagon would not have been represented. It is believed that by the age of eight, Gauss could add every number together from one to 100.
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One of the mathematician's greatest achievements came with the production of his textbook Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. The book is based on number theory and was written in Latin by Gauss in 1798 when he was 21-years-old. Gauss was 24 when the book was published.
Google Google has produced a Doodle to mark the 241st birthday of Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
The text is widely credited for paving the way for modern number theory as we know it. In 1805 Gauss married Johanna Osthoff and had a son and daughter with her. She died four years after they married and the couple’s most recent child, Louis, died the year after.
Getty Gauss requested a regular heptadecagon be inscribed on his tombstone when he died
GOOGLE doodle is celebrating mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß on what would have been his 241st Birthday.
However, many of us may not know anything about him - here's who he is and why he has been given his own Google doodle.
GOOGLE A Google doodle is commemorating Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß
Who was Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß?
Gauß was born in Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, now part of Germany, on April 30 1777 to poor working class parents.
He was a child prodigy and according to stories his genius was first noticed when he corrected an error in his father's payroll calculations at just three-years-old.
He was also rumoured to be able to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100 when he was just eight.
Gauß made his first groundbreaking mathematical studies as a teenager and completed Disquisitiones Arithmeticae when he was just 21 - which is revered by many as his greatest work.
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae is a textbook of number theory written in Latin which brought together the number theories put forward by other mathematicians and forms the basis of modern algebra.
During his career Gauß worked with physics professor Wilhelm Weber in 1831 which led to new discoveries in magnetism and Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity.
He also formulated Gauß's Law relating to the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric field, predicted the movement of dwarf planet Ceres, undertook a land survey of the Kingdom of Hanover, developed the fundamentals of algebra and at 15-years-old was the first person to spot a pattern in the occurrence of prime numbers.
In 1807 he was appointed professor of astronomy and director of the astronomical observatory in Gottingen and in 1921 he was a made a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
He married twice in his life, first Johanna Osthoff who died in 1809, and later Friederica Wilhelmine Waldeck.
He had six children who he would not let study the fields of mathematics or science as he believed none of them would be able to match his achievements and thought they might disgrace the family name.
After his death in 1855 his brain was preserved and studied by Rudolf Wagner who found it had a mass slightly above average (1,492 grams) and a larger cerebral area.
Through his life times Gauß contributed to a number of fields including magnetic fields, astronomy, geophysics, mechanics, number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, electrostatics, matrix theory and optics.
Google doodle's mark cultural moments and with Gauß's huge contribution to maths and science it is fitting that his birthday is viewed by Google as a cultural moment.
The history of Google Doodles, what they are and where they came from
What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
Google Google celebrated the Autumn Equinox with a themed doodle
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
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