At 18:35 4/3/99 EST, you wrote:
>Hi there!
>I am 12 years old in 7th grade and am doing this project for math class. >The question I have is that on my report, I need to say what he studied. I >know its math obviously, but i think i need specifics. If u can, please help!
>Thnx!
>-Flub
>
First off, I have to say you have a very nice nickname.... :o) Okay, this is certainly a new question, I usually get questions on what Gauss WORKED and DID, but you're asking what he STUDIED. So, I'm guessing you mean what classes he took while he was in school? Before Gauss decided to have a career mathematics and the sciences, he wanted to have one in classics and languages. That is, he was very interested in other languages, which is why he knew how to speak french and other languages. So, you can say that he studied languages, or a big word for that is "linguistics." "Classics" denotes things such as Greek and Roman mythology. While in the Gynasium (GUH-NAZ-EE-UM) (A German College Preparatory School), he became more attracted to the classics than science which is why he planned to become a philologist. Even with such plans, he continued reading both scientific and classical masterworks on his spare time.
The big turning point in his plans came in 1796 (he was 19), when he was able to construct a regular 17-gon (heptadecagon). This is a landmark triumph in mathematics.
I hope this is what you wanted. If not, feel free to e-mail me again, and being more specific with the question, of course.
Sincerely,
Nelly "Nez" Cung
FOLLOW-UP
That info sure can help my report! But i was really wondering what he studied when he was a mathematician... like calculus or alrgebra or trig or something.......
But gosh darn, you know alot about this guy!! Did you like, do your senior thesis on him or something? hehe... well... thanks for liking my nickname.... =) And thanks alot! You are amazing!
-Flub
=D
FOLLOW-UP
To the one which bears the awesome name of "Flub,"
First off, the easy questions. Actually, I did do a paper on Gauss' biography in German class in 12th grade. I am also currently doing a research paper on how Gauss determined the orbit of Ceres (an asteroid) for College Composition 2. (To get a good grade and benefits my page, killing 2 birds with one stone, per se). I'm not obsessed with him or anything, just that when I was doing my paper, I found no information online, which was the inspiration of this page. Putting in my efforts, knowledge of math, physics, german, and computers to some good use!
Second, yes, I really do like your name. And who's "bub?"
Okay, what he studied when he was a mathematician. Pretty much EVERYTHING.... I don't know how much you need, but here's a list first, and highlights later.
Arithmetic, Number Theory, Algebra, Geometry, Probability and Statistics.
I know that Gauss did do major contributions to Number Theory, but I still don't understand that theory well, so to prevent misinformation, I'll leave it at that.
Geometry. Believe it or not, that 17-gon I mentioned in the previous e-mail is probably his biggest contribution to Geometry. Before him, it was one of the biggest enigmas in mathematics. When he constructed the 17-gon, he also constructed a proof that if a number comes from this equation, a regular polygon may be constructed. To see the formulae, look at: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/2977/gauss/formulae/gon17.html under "The Actual Proof." For extra credit, read below the horizontal line on that page, about his tombstone.
Probability and Statistics. Out of all of the catagories, it is my personal opinion that his greatest contribution was in this catagory. He is considered the father of this catagory afterall. In case you are unaware, "probabilty" has to do with the chances or the likelihood that something may happen. The classic example, a normal coin. If spun, the probability it will land on "heads" is 1/2, 0.5, etc. Just as it is the same probability it will land on "tails."
Gauss did not come up with the above, for that was discovered way before his time, I only used that as an example for probability. What Gauss really did find were TRENDS. This is the example that I usually use. Let's say that you are doing a survey on heights of all the people in your grade. Chances are is that you'll get many people that are around 5'5" (5 feet and 5 inches), and very few that are 4'0", or very few that are 7'0". This shows a TREND, most people are around a certain level, and few are to the extremes.
He found many other things that are important in Probability and Statistics, but I think it is only important to note 2 more.
The first one is Standard Deviation. Let's say you did another study with your grade, but this time it was on test grades. Just for the sake of easy numbers, there are 10 people in your class.
These are the scores:
Student 'A'-10
Student 'B'-20
Student 'C'-30
Student 'D'-40
Student 'E'-50
Student 'F'-60
Student 'G'-70
Student 'H'-80
Student 'I'-90
And 'Flub'- 100
Everyone has different scores, and they are all over the place, with NO TRENDS whatsoever! In this case, the more spread apart things are, the higher the standard deviation is. In the example with the heights, the standard deviation would be lower because the numbers aren't so widely spread.
The second thing that deserves mention is the Gauss-Jordan Elimination. Let's say you have an equation that X=Y+Z. How can you determine what 'X' is equal to if you have 2 other variables? If I told you that Y=1 and Z=2, then you can simply plug it into the equation, X=1+2, so that X=3. But let's say I don't make it that easy, let's say that X=Y+Z. But this time I tell you that Y=2Z*X, and Z=(1/Y)+4X. The way one would do it is by substitution, but the Gauss-Jordan method offers an alternate method. Hmm.. well, what I gave you is a simple one, so most people would recommend using the substitution method, but there's no way I'm going to explain this method, took me more than a week to learn it well. It is important though, and you might want to think of it as a series of matrices (plural for 'matrix.')
Again, if this isn't what you want, feel free to e-mail me again. But I must give you credit for e-mailing me this early (seeing how the next school day is Monday). I've gotten e-mails that have a project due the next day!
Hope this helps!,
Nelly "Nez" Cung
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