who likes Gauss?

Question

I know I do......

look at its proof of summation of n numbers...he figured this out when he was 7 (maybe 6, not stto sure)!

proof:

let S be summation of numbers from 1 to N, where N is positive integer

S = 1+2+3+...........................................+N (1)
we can also write that as

S = N+ (N-1)+ (N-2)+...............................+1 (2)

then add (1) and (2) together

S = 1+2+3+.................................................N
+S = N+(N-1)+..............................................+1
___________________________________________________

2S = (N+1)+ (N+1)...........................................(N+1)

2S = N(N+1)

S = N(N+1)/ 2

isn't that neat considering the fact that he came up with that when he was a kid? stand ovation to Gauss!!!

sorry i for to put N at the end

S= 1+2+3+...............................N

for both equation

how come my "N" wont show up!!!!!! so i didn't forget!!!!!

Answer 1

Actually..... There are references to that formula that go back **waaayyyyy** before Gauss. There are a lot of other 'cute' formulas like that:

S = 1²+2²+3²....n² = n(n+1)(2n+1)/6
S = 1+3+5+7+9+....n = n²
S = 1²+3²+5²+7²+9²...n² = n(4n²-1)/3
etc.

But Karl Friedrich Gauss was, by any standard, a genius. He was probably 'the' big thinker of the 19'th century (although James Maxwell and Oliver Heaviside might be in serious contention as well ☺)


Doug

Edit: To locomexican. Gauss *did* do quite a bit of work on Fermat. Pretty much every mathematician who has ever lived has taken a swing at that Piñata ☺

Answer 2

The legend says that his teacher told the class to do this task so he could sleep for a while: "Count how many birds there are in a staircase with 100 steps, if there's 1 bird on the first step, 2 on the second, etc all the way up to the 100th step."
When given the same task at the age of 12, I came up with that formula within half an hour. (Without the proof though, I made trial and error) Not only that, I found out why n(n+1) must be even, so that you can divide with two and still get a sum which is an integer.
Of course our teacher revealed that there was something to look for and I was a lot older than Gauss, so I'm not a genius like him.
So I really admire Gauss. Not as much as I admire Nikolas Tesla for what he did in a single lifetime, but yes I like Gauss. (Even though I like him, I still enjoy doing Gauss elimination (: )

Answer 3

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 - 1855) worked in a wide variety of fields in both mathematics and physics incuding number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. His work has had an immense influence in many areas.

Answer 4

Yea its great, he was one of the greatest mathematicians ever. Its a shame he never tried to prove Fermats last theorem.

Answer 5

That guy was a genious! By far, the greatest mathematician ever. There is a lot of stuff named in his honor.