CARL FRIEDRICH GAUSS

(April 30, 1777 – February 23, 1855)

This is the Princeps Mathematicorum. Oh yes, the much revered Prince of

Mathematicians! Even as a teenager, this child prodigy unraveled concepts which
eluded the great masterminds of his era. He took mathematics to exospheric realm by
proving many theorems and reworking several existing solutions; and the rigors of his
analyses were astounding. Carl Friedrich Gauss was adept in all things mathematical.
He contributed to various areas: including mathematical physics. Due to their
unparalleled depths and sophistications, his publications were often deemed abstruse.
Smugly, he would liken them to new cathedrals, whose beauties manifest after the
scaffoldings have been dismantled. His textbook, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, easily
became the magnum opus of 19th century maths. But his perfectionistic obsession
prevented him from publishing much. Till today, mathematicians across the world
lament that Gauss did not publish many of his ideas simply because he did not want to
purvey any imperfect work: even if the only error is something as irrelevant as a
punctuation mark. He was so obsessed with perfection that he urged his children not
to pursue mathematics, because he did not want “another Gauss” to fall short of the
exalted heights he attained. Some scholars opined that he probably could have
garnered enough clout to challenge Leonhard Euler for the title of Greatest
Mathematician, had he published all his know-how. Others argued that he was afraid of
erring, deemed Euler’s lead unassailable, and deplored Gauss’ controversial
precedence claims over his contemporaries’ publications. Notwithstanding, his
mathematical prowess was top-notch.