Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855) German mathematician who is sometimes called the "prince of mathematics." He was a prodigious child, at the age of three informing his father of an arithmetical error in a complicated payroll calculation and stating the correct answer. In school, when his teacher gave the problem of summing the integers from 1 to 100 (an arithmetic series) to his students to keep them busy, Gauss immediately wrote down the correct answer 5050 on his slate. …showed first 75 words of 459 total…

…showed last 75 words of 459 total…all of a practical nature although he did approve Riemann's doctoral thesis and heard his probationary lecture. His last known scientific exchange was with Gerling. He discussed a modified Foucalt pendulum in 1854. He was also able to attend the opening of the new railway link between Hanover and Göttingen, but this proved to be his last outing. His health deteriorated slowly, and Gauss died in his sleep early in the morning of February 23rd, 1855.