Johann Karl Freidrich Gauss
- the man of flux who investigated magnetism
Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss was born in 1777 in the small town of
Braunschweig, Germany. His name is associated with the unit of magnetic flux as
a result of the work he carried out in his lifetime on magnetism. However he was
a brilliant mathematician and it is in this area that he made some of his most
significant contributions, particularly in the areas of number theory, geometry,
and calculus, as well as physics and astronomy.
Early years
As a young child his brilliance soon became obvious. During his time at his
elementary, the teacher asked the class to sum the numbers from 1 to 100. Rather
than simply working this out Gauss generated a general formula for summing
series of numbers. This was an early indication of his aptitude and he went on
to study mathematics at the University of G�ttingen between 1795 and 1798. Here
he obtained his doctorate with the subject of his thesis being the solution of a
theorem that had until then nobody had been able to provide a definitive answer.
Seven years after he graduated in October 1805, Gauss married Johanna Ostoff,
and this gave Gauss the first real happiness of his life, although around this
time his benefactor the Duke of Brunswick was killed fighting the Prussian army.
Two years later in 1807, Gauss left Brunswick where he had been since his
graduation and took up the post at position of director of the G�ttingen
observatory. Here he made many discoveries in a variety of disciplines including
geometry, statistics including distributions, and the physics of fluids.
However after only a year here tragedy struck as his father died in 1807. The
following year his beloved wife Johanna also died after giving birth to their
second son. If this was not enough the son also died shortly afterwards.
Although Gauss was devastated by this loss he remarried a year later to
Johanna�s best fried. Gauss and Minna had three children, but it was said that
he never seemed as happy as when he was with Johanna.
Later work
In 1828 Gauss met William Weber for the first time, and then in 1831 he
supported his appointment as professor of Physics at G�ttingen. The following
year Gauss and Weber worked together, publishing papers that were devoted to
physics and the forces of attraction that existed. This work then lead on to
investigations about terrestrial magnetism, publishing several papers between
1832 and 1840. One of the papers showed that there could only be two poles
within the globe, and then he proceeded to develop his theories to determine the
horizontal component and the angle of inclination. He also mathematically
determined the location of the South Pole.
Apart from their work together on magnetism Gauss and Weber achieved much
together, building an elementary telegraph, and discovering some electrical laws
on top of making many measurements of the Earth�s magnetic field.
Final years
As Gauss became older the amount of work and research he undertook dropped, and
it was very much of a practical nature. His last recorded work of a scientific
nature was in connection with a Foucalt pendulum in the year before his death.
His health slowly deteriorated and Gauss died quietly in his sleep on 23rd
February 1855
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