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73-486: Brunsviga is a calculating machine company whose history goes back to 1892 with devices upgrading from mechanical to electrical thereafter. The firm Grimme & Natalis that manufactured the machines changed their name to Brunsviga Maschinenwerke A.G. in 1927. The Brusvinga device finds its roots in the arithmometer developed by Willgodt Theophil Odhner (1845–1905), a Swedish engineer who emigrated to Russia for work purposes in 1868 or 1869 after having studied mechanics at
146-492: A heliometer from Fraunhofer . The scientific activity of Gauss, besides pure mathematics, can be roughly divided into three periods: astronomy was the main focus in the first two decades of the 19th century, geodesy in the third decade, and physics, mainly magnetism, in the fourth decade. Gauss made no secret of his aversion to giving academic lectures. But from the start of his academic career at Göttingen, he continuously gave lectures until 1854. He often complained about
219-423: A magnetometer in 1833 and – alongside Wilhelm Eduard Weber – the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833. Gauss was the first to discover and study non-Euclidean geometry , coining the term as well. He further developed a fast Fourier transform some 160 years before John Tukey and James Cooley . Gauss refused to publish incomplete work and left several works to be edited posthumously . He believed that
292-406: A butcher, bricklayer, gardener, and treasurer of a death-benefit fund. Gauss characterized his father as honourable and respected, but rough and dominating at home. He was experienced in writing and calculating, whereas his second wife Dorothea, Carl Friedrich's mother, was nearly illiterate. He had one elder brother from his father's first marriage. Gauss was a child prodigy in mathematics. When
365-569: A collection of short remarks about his results from the years 1796 until 1814, shows that many ideas for his mathematical magnum opus Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801) date from this time. Gauss graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1799, not in Göttingen, as is sometimes stated, but at the Duke of Brunswick's special request from the University of Helmstedt, the only state university of
438-491: A considerable literary estate, too. Gauss referred to mathematics as "the queen of sciences" and arithmetics as "the queen of mathematics", and supposedly once espoused a belief in the necessity of immediately understanding Euler's identity as a benchmark pursuant to becoming a first-class mathematician. On certain occasions, Gauss claimed that the ideas of another scholar had already been in his possession previously. Thus his concept of priority as "the first to discover, not
511-672: A critique of d'Alembert's work. He subsequently produced three other proofs, the last one in 1849 being generally rigorous. His attempts clarified the concept of complex numbers considerably along the way. In the preface to the Disquisitiones , Gauss dates the beginning of his work on number theory to 1795. By studying the works of previous mathematicians like Fermat, Euler, Lagrange, and Legendre, he realized that these scholars had already found much of what he had discovered by himself. The Disquisitiones Arithmeticae , written since 1798 and published in 1801, consolidated number theory as
584-431: A curious feature of his working style that he carried out calculations with a high degree of precision much more than required, and prepared tables with more decimal places than ever requested for practical purposes. Very likely, this method gave him a lot of material which he used in finding theorems in number theory. Gauss refused to publish work that he did not consider complete and above criticism. This perfectionism
657-474: A decade. Therese then took over the household and cared for Gauss for the rest of his life; after her father's death, she married actor Constantin Staufenau. Her sister Wilhelmina married the orientalist Heinrich Ewald . Gauss's mother Dorothea lived in his house from 1817 until she died in 1839. The eldest son Joseph, while still a schoolboy, helped his father as an assistant during the survey campaign in
730-483: A discipline and covered both elementary and algebraic number theory . Therein he introduces the triple bar symbol ( ≡ ) for congruence and uses it for a clean presentation of modular arithmetic . It deals with the unique factorization theorem and primitive roots modulo n . In the main sections, Gauss presents the first two proofs of the law of quadratic reciprocity and develops the theories of binary and ternary quadratic forms . The Disquisitiones include
803-682: A habit in his later years, for example, the number of paths from his home to certain places in Göttingen, or the number of living days of persons; he congratulated Humboldt in December 1851 for having reached the same age as Isaac Newton at his death, calculated in days. Similar to his excellent knowledge of Latin he was also acquainted with modern languages. At the age of 62, he began to teach himself Russian , very likely to understand scientific writings from Russia, among them those of Lobachevsky on non-Euclidean geometry. Gauss read both classical and modern literature, and English and French works in
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#1732779831559876-555: A heart attack in Göttingen; and was interred in the Albani Cemetery there. Heinrich Ewald , Gauss's son-in-law, and Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen , Gauss's close friend and biographer, gave eulogies at his funeral. Gauss was a successful investor and accumulated considerable wealth with stocks and securities, finally a value of more than 150 thousand Thaler; after his death, about 18 thousand Thaler were found hidden in his rooms. The day after Gauss's death his brain
949-474: A private scholar. 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
1022-444: A ready- sale, as all go-ahead business men want such a time-saver . . ." By streamlining their production under the guidance of Herman Hoffmeister (1886–1930), Brunsviga was able to support mass production at reasonable cost of devices meeting market needs. The company also worked on reducing the weight and dimensions of their final product to facilitate the dispatch by launching miniature series (A,B and J) or other compact models such as
1095-702: A scandal in public, Eugen suddenly left Göttingen under dramatic circumstances in September 1830 and emigrated via Bremen to the United States. He wasted the little money he had taken to start, after which his father refused further financial support. The youngest son Wilhelm wanted to qualify for agricultural administration, but had difficulties getting an appropriate education, and eventually emigrated as well. Only Gauss's youngest daughter Therese accompanied him in his last years of life. Collecting numerical data on very different things, useful or useless, became
1168-401: A short story. The painter and graphist from Brunswick, Karl Bock (1873–1940), created the cover of the brochure while Austrian artist August Mandlick (1860–1934) took care of the illustrations. Lastly, the writer Abraham Halberthal (1881–1969), under the pseudonym A. Halbert, published short stories in the company monthly magazine to present the calculating machine. Many scientists worked with
1241-415: A strong calculus as the sole tasks of astronomy. At university, he was accompanied by a staff of other lecturers in his disciplines, who completed the educational program; these included the mathematician Thibaut with his lectures, the physicist Mayer , known for his textbooks, his successor Weber since 1831, and in the observatory Harding , who took the main part of lectures in practical astronomy. When
1314-445: A university chair in Göttingen, "because he was always involved in some polemic." Gauss's life was overshadowed by severe problems in his family. When his first wife Johanna suddenly died shortly after the birth of their third child, he revealed the grief in a last letter to his dead wife in the style of an ancient threnody , the most personal surviving document of Gauss. The situation worsened when tuberculosis ultimately destroyed
1387-592: The Celestial police . One of their aims was the discovery of further planets. They assembled data on asteroids and comets as a basis for Gauss's research on their orbits, which he later published in his astronomical magnum opus Theoria motus corporum coelestium (1809). In November 1807, Gauss followed a call to the University of Göttingen , then an institution of the newly founded Kingdom of Westphalia under Jérôme Bonaparte , as full professor and director of
1460-502: The Gauss composition law for binary quadratic forms, as well as the enumeration of the number of representations of an integer as the sum of three squares. As an almost immediate corollary of his theorem on three squares , he proves the triangular case of the Fermat polygonal number theorem for n = 3. From several analytic results on class numbers that Gauss gives without proof towards
1533-493: The astronomical observatory , and kept the chair until his death in 1855. He was soon confronted with the demand for two thousand francs from the Westphalian government as a war contribution, which he could not afford to pay. Both Olbers and Laplace wanted to help him with the payment, but Gauss refused their assistance. Finally, an anonymous person from Frankfurt , later discovered to be Prince-primate Dalberg , paid
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#17327798315591606-472: 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 1820 to 1844; 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 1821,
1679-550: The popularization of scientific matters. His only attempts at popularization were his works on the date of Easter (1800/1802) and the essay Erdmagnetismus und Magnetometer of 1836. Gauss published his papers and books exclusively in Latin or German . He wrote Latin in a classical style but used some customary modifications set by contemporary mathematicians. In his inaugural lecture at Göttingen University from 1808, Gauss claimed reliable observations and results attained only by
1752-518: The Brunsviga 13, allowing them as well to reduce selling prices. Simultaneously, in the early 1920s, numerous sectors such as Insurance companies, Statistics, Geodesy, Astronomy or Engineering implemented the use of the calculating machine into their calculation processes. Even more broadly, every sector with a requirement for precise calculation processes found itself in need of calculating machines. The brutal population growth and even bigger demands in
1825-630: The Brunsviga Novas occurred around 1925, the same year as that of the Brunsviga 13. In 1929, Franz Trinks developed his last model, the Brunsviga Dupla, which happened to be electrical. He died in 1931. In 1952 60 years after the first model, 60 different types were available on the market and the firm accounted for 265.000 sales. In 1952, Brunsviga Maschinenwerke AG employed a thousand people. Between 1926 and 1930, after launching Nova and type 13, 40,000 devices were produced equalling
1898-487: The Brunsviga. Amongst them, Enrico Fermi used it at the very beginning of his work on nuclear chain reaction, also Karl Pearson , Stephen Wilson' and Sydney Holt . Some Brunsviga machines can also be found in museums such as the model C at the Smithsonian . The Henri Poincaré Institute also owns one. In 1959, the company Olympia Werke took full control of Brunsviga Maschinenwerke AG. Shortly after, in 1962, most of
1971-441: The Duke was killed in the battle of Jena in 1806. The duchy was abolished in the following year, and Gauss's financial support stopped. When Gauss was calculating asteroid orbits in the first years of the century, he established contact with the astronomical community of Bremen and Lilienthal , especially Wilhelm Olbers , Karl Ludwig Harding , and Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel , as part of the informal group of astronomers known as
2044-494: The French language. Gauss was "in front of the new development" with documented research since 1799, his wealth of new ideas, and his rigour of demonstration. Whereas previous mathematicians like Leonhard Euler let the readers take part in their reasoning for new ideas, including certain erroneous deviations from the correct path, Gauss however introduced a new style of direct and complete explanation that did not attempt to show
2117-637: The Netherlands and in Denmark. In 1931, adding to the 30 offices in Germany, 90 more opened their doors in foreign countries In 1909, the company introduced the tagline "the brain of steel" alongside an illustration from fellow Brunswick native mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss . In the late 1920s, the graphist Günther Clausen (1885–1954) chose to modify the drawing of the head, and the tagline read "calculate everything". Alongside marketing strategies,
2190-541: The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Odhner was hired by his fellow Swede Ludvig Nobel (Albert Nobel's brother) who was the head of an arms factory. His job there was to fix the so-called Thomas Arithmometers, named after their designer in the 1820s. The term arithmometer covered mechanical calculating devices that were able to perform all the four arithmetic operations. Odhner improved and simplified
2263-475: The act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again. The posthumous papers, his scientific diary , and short glosses in his own textbooks show that he worked to a great extent in an empirical way. He was a lifelong busy and enthusiastic calculator, who made his calculations with extraordinary rapidity, mostly without precise controlling, but checked
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2336-642: 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 . Gauss was born on 30 April 1777 in Brunswick in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (now in the German state of Lower Saxony ). His family was of relatively low social status. His father Gebhard Dietrich Gauss (1744–1808) worked variously as
2409-637: The best-paid professors of the university. When Gauss was asked for help by his colleague and friend Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel in 1810, who was in trouble at Königsberg University because of his lack of an academic title, Gauss provided a doctorate honoris causa for Bessel from the Philosophy Faculty of Göttingen in March 1811. Gauss gave another recommendation for an honorary degree for Sophie Germain but only shortly before her death, so she never received it. He also gave successful support to
2482-517: The birth of Louis, who himself died a few months later. Gauss chose the first names of his children in honour of Giuseppe Piazzi , Wilhelm Olbers, and Karl Ludwig Harding, the discoverers of the first asteroids. On 4 August 1810, Gauss married Wilhelmine (Minna) Waldeck, a friend of his first wife, with whom he had three more children: Eugen (later Eugene) (1811–1896), Wilhelm (later William) (1813–1879), and Therese (1816–1864). Minna Gauss died on 12 September 1831 after being seriously ill for more than
2555-701: The burdens of teaching, feeling that it was a waste of his time. On the other hand, he occasionally described some students as talented. Most of his lectures dealt with astronomy, geodesy, and applied mathematics , and only three lectures on subjects of pure mathematics. Some of Gauss's students went on to become renowned mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers: Moritz Cantor , Dedekind , Dirksen , Encke , Gould , Heine , Klinkerfues , Kupffer , Listing , Möbius , Nicolai , Riemann , Ritter , Schering , Scherk , Schumacher , von Staudt , Stern , Ursin ; as geoscientists Sartorius von Waltershausen , and Wappäus . Gauss did not write any textbook and disliked
2628-496: The contemporary school of Naturphilosophie . Gauss had an "aristocratic and through and through conservative nature", with little respect for people's intelligence and morals, following the motto " mundus vult decipi ". He disliked Napoleon and his system, and all kinds of violence and revolution caused horror to him. Thus he condemned the methods of the Revolutions of 1848 , though he agreed with some of their aims, such as
2701-702: The duchy. Johann Friedrich Pfaff assessed his doctoral thesis, and Gauss got the degree in absentia without further oral examination. The Duke then granted him the cost of living as a private scholar in Brunswick. Gauss subsequently refused calls from the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Peterburg and Landshut University . Later, the Duke promised him the foundation of an observatory in Brunswick in 1804. Architect Peter Joseph Krahe made preliminary designs, but one of Napoleon's wars cancelled those plans:
2774-514: 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 , which he attended from 1792 to 1795 with Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann as one of his teachers. Thereafter the Duke granted him the resources for studies of mathematics, sciences, and classical languages at the University of Göttingen until 1798. His professor in mathematics
2847-412: The end of the fifth section, it appears that Gauss already knew the class number formula in 1801. In the last section, Gauss gives proof for the constructibility of a regular heptadecagon (17-sided polygon) with straightedge and compass by reducing this geometrical problem to an algebraic one. He shows that a regular polygon is constructible if the number of its sides is either a power of 2 or
2920-490: The engineer Franz Trinks, who was then head executive of Brunsvinga. In the twenty years to follow, 89 German patents and 152 of other countries' were filed based on his inventions. Some machines were now able to perform simultaneously multiple operations (not more than three), as did the Trinks-Triplex, launched shortly before World War I whose 19 typing levers could display results as long as 20 numbers. The launch of
2993-478: The existing models (11S, 11E, 16E, 13BR, 18 RK, D 18 R, D13 R/1 D13 R2) saw their production stopped. The only ones remaining on the market up until 1963 were the 13RK, B20 and B183. The 13RM from the old range remained available up until 1964. The RT4 (1970–1971), which was made in Spain, was the last device launched by Olympia, but as a limited edition numbering only around 1500 copies. In 1972, Olympia stopped for good
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3066-491: The expensive devices by implementing a different transmission system. In 1878, as he tried to expand his business, Odhner partnered with Karl Königsberger, a commercial advisor and merchant in the guild of Saint-Petersburg. The latter filed patents in numerous countries including Germany with the German patent n° 7393.11 on 19 November 1878. In 1892, one of the top executives of the German's sewing machine firm Grimme & Natalis bought Odhner's patent for his device. His intention
3139-525: The firm made use of specialized magazines as well as the press to promote the use of calculating machines: the Manchester Guardian for instance, showed an image of a worker with his Brunsviga. Artists too were sought to publish in the monthly company magazine. For the twenty year's anniversary of Brunsviga in 1912, a brochure was published under the title When calculating machines have a heart , whose author, Fritz Müller later republished it as
3212-669: The first investigations, due to mislabelling, with that of the physician Conrad Heinrich Fuchs , who died in Göttingen a few months after Gauss. A further investigation showed no remarkable anomalies in the brains of both persons. Thus, all investigations on Gauss's brain until 1998, except the first ones of Rudolf and Hermann Wagner, actually refer to the brain of Fuchs. Gauss married Johanna Osthoff on 9 October 1805 in St. Catherine's church in Brunswick. They had two sons and one daughter: Joseph (1806–1873), Wilhelmina (1808–1840), and Louis (1809–1810). Johanna died on 11 October 1809, one month after
3285-440: The first to publish" differed from that of his scientific contemporaries. In contrast to his perfectionism in presenting mathematical ideas, he was criticized for a negligent way of quoting. He justified himself with a very special view of correct quoting: if he gave references, then only in a quite complete way, with respect to the previous authors of importance, which no one should ignore; but quoting in this way needed knowledge of
3358-525: The health of his second wife Minna over 13 years; both his daughters later suffered from the same disease. Gauss himself gave only slight hints of his distress: in a letter to Bessel dated December 1831 he described himself as "the victim of the worst domestic sufferings". By reason of his wife's illness, both younger sons were educated for some years in Celle , far from Göttingen. The military career of his elder son Joseph ended after more than two decades with
3431-460: The history of science and more time than he wished to spend. Soon after Gauss's death, his friend Sartorius published the first biography (1856), written in a rather enthusiastic style. Sartorius saw him as a serene and forward-striving man with childlike modesty, but also of "iron character" with an unshakeable strength of mind. Apart from his closer circle, others regarded him as reserved and unapproachable "like an Olympian sitting enthroned on
3504-467: The idea of a unified Germany. As far as the political system is concerned, he had a low estimation of the constitutional system; he criticized parliamentarians of his time for a lack of knowledge and logical errors. Some Gauss biographers have speculated on his religious beliefs. He sometimes said "God arithmetizes" and "I succeeded – not on account of my hard efforts, but by the grace of the Lord." Gauss
3577-598: The mathematician Gotthold Eisenstein in Berlin. Gauss was loyal to the House of Hanover . After King William IV died in 1837, the new Hanoverian King Ernest Augustus annulled the 1833 constitution. Seven professors, later known as the " Göttingen Seven ", protested against this, among them his friend and collaborator Wilhelm Weber and Gauss's son-in-law Heinrich Ewald. All of them were dismissed, and three of them were expelled, but Ewald and Weber could stay in Göttingen. Gauss
3650-526: The matter of economical calculation required such calculations to be done quickly and at rational costs. The market penetration of the brand was accompanied by the filing of numerous patents. Before 1915, Germany alone accounted for more than a hundred patents, and 200 others were filed internationally. In 1906, Brunsviga's sales agents were based in London, Paris, Stockholm, Conception, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Johannesburg. The company now had branch offices in
3723-590: The observatory was completed, Gauss took his living accommodation in the western wing of the new observatory and Harding in the eastern one. They had once been on friendly terms, but over time they became alienated, possibly – as some biographers presume – because Gauss had wished the equal-ranked Harding to be no more than his assistant or observer. Gauss used the new meridian circles nearly exclusively, and kept them away from Harding, except for some very seldom joint observations. Brendel subdivides Gauss's astronomic activity chronologically into seven periods, of which
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#17327798315593796-411: The original languages. His favorite English author was Walter Scott , his favorite German Jean Paul . Gauss liked singing and went to concerts. He was a busy newspaper reader; in his last years, he used to visit an academic press salon of the university every noon. Gauss did not care much for philosophy, and mocked the "splitting hairs of the so-called metaphysicians", by which he meant proponents of
3869-475: The problem by accepting offers from Berlin in 1810 and 1825 to become a full member of the Prussian Academy without burdening lecturing duties, as well as from Leipzig University in 1810 and from Vienna University in 1842, perhaps because of the family's difficult situation. Gauss's salary was raised from 1000 Reichsthaler in 1810 to 2400 Reichsthaler in 1824, and in his later years he was one of
3942-425: The product of a power of 2 and any number of distinct Fermat primes . In the same section, he gives a result on the number of solutions of certain cubic polynomials with coefficients in finite fields , which amounts to counting integral points on an elliptic curve . An unfinished eighth chapter was found among left papers only after his death, consisting of work done during 1797–1799. One of Gauss's first results
4015-515: The production in numbers of nearly 30 years between 1892 and 1921. According to Peter Faulstich in his article, the name Brunsviga was used for fifty years to refer to calculating machines. In 1872, in a specialized journal, the conditions for calculating machines to meet market needs were written as follows: "If a reliable calculating machine could be manufactured to retail at a low price, say five dollars, with which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division could be done, it would no doubt find
4088-678: The production of mechanical calculating devices. Willgodt Theophil Odhner Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 920796893 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:43:51 GMT Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (German: Gauß [kaʁl ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈɡaʊs] ; Latin : Carolus Fridericus Gauss ; 30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855)
4161-592: The railroad system in the US for some months. Eugen left Göttingen in September 1830 and emigrated to the United States, where he joined the army for five years. He then worked for the American Fur Company in the Midwest. Later, he moved to Missouri and became a successful businessman. Wilhelm married a niece of the astronomer Bessel ; he then moved to Missouri, started as a farmer and became wealthy in
4234-437: The rank of a poorly paid first lieutenant , although he had acquired a considerable knowledge of geodesy. He needed financial support from his father even after he was married. The second son Eugen shared a good measure of his father's talent in computation and languages, but had a vivacious and sometimes rebellious character. He wanted to study philology, whereas Gauss wanted him to become a lawyer. Having run up debts and caused
4307-435: The reader the author's train of thought. Gauss was the first to restore that rigor of demonstration which we admire in the ancients and which had been forced unduly into the background by the exclusive interest of the preceding period in new developments. But for himself, he propagated a quite different ideal, given in a letter to Farkas Bolyai as follows: It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but
4380-411: The results by masterly estimation. Nevertheless, his calculations were not always free from mistakes. He coped with the enormous workload by using skillful tools. Gauss used a lot of mathematical tables , examined their exactness, and constructed new tables on various matters for personal use. He developed new tools for effective calculation, for example the Gaussian elimination . It has been taken as
4453-558: The shoe business in St. Louis in later years. Eugene and William have numerous descendants in America, but the Gauss descendants left in Germany all derive from Joseph, as the daughters had no children. In the first two decades of the 19th century, Gauss was the only important mathematician in Germany, comparable to the leading French ones; his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae was the first mathematical book from Germany to be translated into
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#17327798315594526-567: The sum. Gauss took on the directorate of the 60-year-old observatory, founded in 1748 by Prince-elector George II and built on a converted fortification tower, with usable, but partly out-of-date instruments. The construction of a new observatory had been approved by Prince-elector George III in principle since 1802, and the Westphalian government continued the planning, but Gauss could not move to his new place of work until September 1816. He got new up-to-date instruments, including two meridian circles from Repsold and Reichenbach , and
4599-577: The summer of 1821. After a short time at university, in 1824 Joseph joined the Hanoverian army and assisted in surveying again in 1829. In the 1830s he was responsible for the enlargement of the survey network to the western parts of the kingdom. With his geodetical qualifications, he left the service and engaged in the construction of the railway network as director of the Royal Hanoverian State Railways . In 1836 he studied
4672-421: The summit of science". His close contemporaries agreed that Gauss was a man of difficult character. He often refused to accept compliments. His visitors were occasionally irritated by his grumpy behaviour, but a short time later his mood could change, and he would become a charming, open-minded host. Gauss abominated polemic natures; together with his colleague Hausmann he opposed to a call for Justus Liebig on
4745-421: The years since 1820 are taken as a "period of lower astronomical activity". The new, well-equipped observatory did not work as effectively as other ones; Gauss's astronomical research had the character of a one-man enterprise without a long-time observation program, and the university established a place for an assistant only after Harding died in 1834. Nevertheless, Gauss twice refused the opportunity to solve
4818-630: Was Abraham Gotthelf Kästner , whom Gauss called "the leading mathematician among poets, and the leading poet among mathematicians" because of his epigrams . Astronomy was taught by Karl Felix Seyffer , with whom Gauss stayed in correspondence after graduation; Olbers and Gauss mocked him in their correspondence. On the other hand, he thought highly of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , his teacher of physics, and of Christian Gottlob Heyne , whose lectures in classics Gauss attended with pleasure. Fellow students of this time were Johann Friedrich Benzenberg , Farkas Bolyai , and Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes . He
4891-585: Was a German mathematician , astronomer , geodesist , and physicist who contributed to many fields in mathematics and science. He was director of the Göttingen Observatory and professor of astronomy from 1807 until his death in 1855. He is widely considered one of the greatest mathematicians ever. While studying at the University of Göttingen , he propounded several mathematical theorems . Gauss completed his masterpieces Disquisitiones Arithmeticae and Theoria motus corporum coelestium as
4964-792: Was a member of the Lutheran church , like most of the population in northern Germany. It seems that he did not believe all dogmas or understand the Holy Bible quite literally. Sartorius mentioned Gauss's religious tolerance , and estimated his "insatiable thirst for truth" and his sense of justice as motivated by religious convictions. In his doctoral thesis from 1799, Gauss proved the fundamental theorem of algebra which states that every non-constant single-variable polynomial with complex coefficients has at least one complex root . Mathematicians including Jean le Rond d'Alembert had produced false proofs before him, and Gauss's dissertation contains
5037-701: Was deeply affected by this quarrel but saw no possibility to help them. Gauss took part in academic administration: three times he was elected as dean of the Faculty of Philosophy. Being entrusted with the widow's pension fund of the university, he dealt with actuarial science and wrote a report on the strategy for stabilizing the benefits. He was appointed director of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Göttingen for nine years. Gauss remained mentally active into his old age, even while suffering from gout and general unhappiness. On 23 February 1855, he died of
5110-517: Was in keeping with the motto of his personal seal Pauca sed Matura ("Few, but Ripe"). Many colleagues encouraged him to publicize new ideas and sometimes rebuked him if he hesitated too long, in their opinion. Gauss defended himself, claiming that the initial discovery of ideas was easy, but preparing a presentable elaboration was a demanding matter for him, for either lack of time or "serenity of mind". Nevertheless, he published many short communications of urgent content in various journals, but left
5183-484: Was likely a self-taught student in mathematics since he independently rediscovered several theorems. He solved a geometrical problem that had occupied mathematicians since the Ancient Greeks , when he determined in 1796 which regular polygons can be constructed by compass and straightedge . This discovery ultimately led Gauss to choose mathematics instead of philology as a career. Gauss's mathematical diary,
5256-512: Was removed, preserved, and studied by Rudolf Wagner , who found its mass to be slightly above average, at 1,492 grams (3.29 lb). Wagner's son Hermann , a geographer, estimated the cerebral area to be 219,588 square millimetres (340.362 sq in) in his doctoral thesis. In 2013, a neurobiologist at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen discovered that Gauss's brain had been mixed up soon after
5329-577: Was to use the same production tools for both sewing and calculating machines. The patent included distribution rights in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland and the calculating machines were launched under the brand's name "Brunsviga", in reference to the city of Braunschweig , where the firm Grimme & Natalis was based. The first device, the "A" type, was launched in July 1892 under the name Brunsviga and resembled Odhner's devices. Multiple modifications to its design as well as capabilities were made afterwards by
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