Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 4, 2005



Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians", Gauss introduced concepts which have had a profound impact in many areas and his work is ranked alongside that of Newton and Archimedes. Gauss was a child prodigy, and he made his first ground-breaking mathematical discoveries while still a teenager. He completed Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, his magnum opus, at the age of 24. This work was fundamental in consolidating number theory as a discipline, and it has shaped the direction of modern research up to the present day.

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