Jeff Loftin

Homework 8
1. Gauss Bio
Part I: Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
1. He was born April 30th, 1777 in Brunswick, Germany.
2. He was born to a lower, working class family.
3. His mother was illiterate and had not even taken the time to
record the date of his birth (being illiterate certainly would not
have helped!).
4. He was a child genius, able to perform amazing feats of
mental capacity at young ages. It is rumored that he was able
to spot an arithmetic error in his fathers payroll information
at just 3 years of age, quite astounding!
5. At age seven he started elementary school, and was noticed
for his ability almost instantly.
6. By age 11 he was moved to the Gymnasium (an upper school
of sorts) for his education. It was there that he learned both
Latin and High German.
7. The Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel gave Gauss a stipend,
allowing him to enter the Brunswick Collegium Carolinum
(BCC) just a few years later.
8. It was at the BCC that Gauss independently discovered and
studied Bodes law, the prime number theorem, the binomial
theorem, and the law of quadratic reciprocity. Numbers
continued to fascinate him for the entirety of his life.
9. In 1795 Gauss left to study at Gottingen University. It was
here that he met Farkas Bolyai (in 1799) and they became
friends, continuing to write to each other for many years.
10. In 1799 in Brunswick Gauss received his degree. At this
time, the Duke also decided to continue Gauss stipend and
requested that he submit a dissertation to the University of
Helmstedt.
11. It is important to note that while at University Gauss
discovered many important theorems, which will be
mentioned later. His work at such a young age was quite
impressive and contributed to many fields outside of pure
mathematics.
12. Because of the stipend he was receiving, Gauss dedicated
himself to study and research. He published his work
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae in 1801, mostly concerned with
number theory.
13. In that same year, he was able to predict with very close
approximation the location of a new small planet that his
acquaintance Zach had been attempting to track.

14. In 1805 Gauss married Johanna Ostoff.

15. Unfortunately his benefactor, the Duke of Brunswick, was
killed shortly thereafter, causing Gauss to move to Gottengin
(taking over the director position).
16. Within a roughly one-year period his father, wife, and
second son died.
17. About a year later, Gauss remarried to Minna, his wifes
best friend and had three children with her.
18. Though he experienced much tragedy, he was able to
focus that frustration into his work. He published works on the
motion of celestial bodies, but also on series work and the
hypergeometric function.
19. By 1818 Gauss was asked to carry out a geodesic survey of
Hanover, this pleased him and he took over the project
quickly.
20. Between the years 1820 and 1830 he published over 70
papers.
21. In 1822 Gauss won the Copenhagen University Prize with
his paper Theoria Attractionis (not published until 1825).
22. Though not able to completely prove it, he was interested
in non-Euclidian geometry and devoted much of his free time
to this subject. His contributions helped lead to others proving
the existence.
23. In 1831 Weber because the physics professor at Gottingen.
He and Gauss performed well together in their six years
together and did enormous amounts of work.
24. In 1837, because of a political dispute, Gauss left the
university and his publication activity declined because of
this.
25. Staying active, and because of his tremendous mental
capacity, he began working with financial matters and made
himself a small fortune in investments.
26. Gauss died in his sleep on February 23, 1855.
Part II:
1. Disquisitiones Arithmeticae 1801
This was (and could be argued still is) the most important
book on number theory ever written. In this work Gauss
brought together the works of several other
mathematicians including Fermat, Euler, Lagrange, and
Legendre while adding much of his own knowledge. He
covered the subjects of elementary number theory and
algebraic number theory in this work. Essentially this book
consolidated most of the information of the day on number
theory into one collection. This also added numerous

proofs which helped fill in gaps and compose a framework

for the subject to grow from.
2. Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium in Sectionibus Conicis
Solem Ambientium 1809
This work presented a method for calculating the orbit of
asteroids and other celestial bodies when they leave sight.
This is the method that he used to find the planetoid
(asteroid) Ceres to help his friend and colleague track its
orbit as it went behind the sun. Gauss used conic sections
to determine the path of the celestial bodies.
3. Gauss Law for Magnetism
This is also called the absence of free magnetic poles, and
can be written in multiple ways. Because of the divergence
theorem, the integral and differential form can be written
and work just the same. This is important to the works of
physics and applied mathematics because it works with
electric flux and closed surfaces, and their interactions.
4. Normal (Gaussian) Distribution
This is a commonly occurring continuous probability
distribution in probability theory. Basically it is a function
that tells the probability that an observation will lie
between two real numbers or specific real limits. This also
is important because of its interaction with the central limit
theorem, which we will not get into here. This is often also
called the bell curve, but is not the only bell shaped curve
know.
5. Differential Geometry
Gauss studied curves and surfaces in three dimensions
according to Euclidian spaces. He helped to lead to the
discovery of non-Euclidian geometry. Essentially this was
because the way that we measure the distance on a
surface determines the curvature of the object itself. His
study also helped to lead to many discoveries about
shortest distances and also helped prove the parallel
postulate was independent of Euclids other four axioms!
Part III: References
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Gauss.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Gauss
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/carl-f-gauss442.php

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Gauss.html
http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/men/gauss.html
2. Marie-Sophie Germain Biography
Sophie Germain was born April 1, 1776 in France Rue SaintDenis, Paris, France. Born to a wealthy family, she faced
tremendous resistance to her learning from her family. This was
because, at the time, it was frowned upon for women to learn in
just about any capacity. She would escape to her fathers library
to read and delve into mathematics. It is said that when she was
13, at the time of the French revolution, she thoroughly engulfed
herself in the works of mathematicians like Archimedes. Without
a tutor, or any formal education whatsoever, she taught herself
differential calculus a rather impressive feat. Because she was
a woman, she was unable to attend the Ecole Polytechnique in
Paris, but through friends and the use of the pseudonym M. Le
Blanc, she managed to obtain lecture notes from many courses.
It was through this association that she came to meet Lagrange,
who became a mentor and support system of sorts for her for
many years. After some time, her work shifted from number
theory and pure mathematics to more applied mathematics.
Frances emperor, Napoleon issued a contest to see who could
best explain the phenomenon of harmonic motion in two
dimensions. Germains entry was the only one, for political
reasons, and was rejected because of errors. After two more
attempts, her third submission was accepted and she won the
prize in 1816. This did gain her some attention, but because she
was a woman, it did not change the overall feeling toward her
work and studies. Her last submission also won her the French
Academys grand prize because of its application to vibrating
elastic surfaces. Her theory helped explain and helped to predict
the reaction and unusual patterns formed by sand and powder on
elastic surfaces as they are vibrated. Because of studies like hers
and others closely related, the construction of the Eiffel Tower
became possible. By age 55, in 1831, Germain had been
struggling with breast cancer and eventually succumbed to it,
dying in her home. Sadly, this was just before she was due to
receive her honorary degree from Gottengin (at Gauss behest
and insistence that she be granted an honorary degree for her
work and contributions to mathematics).
References:
http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/women/germain.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain
https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/germain.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/230626/SophieGermain
3. What is the fundamental theorem of algebra?
The fundamental theorem of algebra states that a polynomial of
degree n has n roots, though there may be complex numbers
used. It states that every non-constant single variable polynomial
with complex coefficients has at least one complex root. This is
important because it also includes polynomials that do not
appear to have complex coefficients because every real number
is a complex number with a zero imaginary part. The two
statements above can be proven using the use of successive
polynomial division.
4. What is the definition of a hypergeometric series?
A hypergeometric series is a generalization of the factorial
function. They are solutions to a large class of differential
equations. It states that:

ak t k
k

is hypergeometric if

Qk =

a k+1
ak

is a rational function. Logarithmic, exponential, Laguerre

polynomials, Hermite polynomials, and trigonometric functions
are hypergeometric. These series show up in many differential
equations that are quite important and can be applied to physics,
combinatorics, and number theory.

5. Show that

cos

( 5 )= 1+45

We will let

=
5
define
d k cos ( k )
also we will be using the identity
e +ix +eix
cos x=
2
and we then let
cos=e ix .
Using this we will apply Eulers formula for each d i
d 1 +d 3 +d 5= ( eia +e 3ia +e 5 ia )

to see that

ia
2 ia
4 ia
( e ( 1+ e + e ) )

(
(

eia

6 ia

e 1
2 ia
e 1

)
)

e 6 ia 1
e 2 ia 1
And because
eix eix
sin x=
2i
We can see that we now have
sin ( 3 a ) 1 3 ia sin ( 3 a ) 3 ia sin (3 a )
e 6 ia 1
eia 2 ia
= e 3 ia
= e
+e
2
sin ( a )
sin ( a )
sin ( a )
e 1
And using what we know from above
1
sin ( 6 a )
sin ( 3 a )
2

cos ( 3 a ) =
sin ( a )
sin ( a )
And we note that
sin ( 6 a ) =sin (7 aa )=sin ( 7 a ) cos ( a )cos (7 a ) sin ( a )
sin ( 2 ) cos ( a )cos ( 2 ) sin ( a )=0sin ( a )=sin ( a)
Therefore,
1 sin ( 6 a ) 1 sin ( a ) 1

=
=
2
2 sin ( a )
2
sin ( a )
We also can see that
5
d 5=cos 5=cos
=cos ( )=1
5
Therefore d 5=1
Using this, we can see that
1
1
1
d 1 +d 3 +d 5=
d1 +d 3 1=
d 1 +d 3=
2
2
2
Show that d 1=d 4
cos=cos ( 5 cos 4 )=cos ( 5 ) cos ( 4 ) +sin ( 5 ) sin ( 4 )
1cos ( 4 ) +sin ( ) sin ( 4 )=cos ( 4 ) +0sin ( 4 )=cos ( 4 )
because
cos ( u ) =cos (u )
we can see that
cos ( ) =cos (4 ) thus , d 1=d 4
Show that d 3=d 2
d 3 cos ( 3 )=cos (5 2 )=cos 5 cos 2 +sin 5 sin 2
cos 2 +0 therefore cos (3 )=cos ( 2 )cos ( 3 )=cos (2 )
Therefore
d 3=d 2
1
Now we will show that d 1d 3=
4
eia

) (

) (

) (

( )

cos ( + 3 )+ cos ( 3 ) cos ( 4 ) +cos (2 )

=
2
2
Using what we see above :
cos ( ) =cos (4 )=cos ( 4 )

cos ( 3 )=cos (2 )
1
cos ( )+ cos ( 3 )
2 1
cos ( )cos ( 3 )=
=
=
2
2
4
1
1
1
d 1 +d 3= d 1d 3 =
We can substitute d 3=
seethat
2
4
4 d1
1
1
d 1
=
4 d1 2

1
1
1
2
d 1
=02 d1 d 1 =0
4 d1 2
2
Thus
1
1+ 14 (2 )
2
1+ 5
d 1=
=
2(2)
4
Thus we have:

1+ 5
d 1=cos ( )=cos
=
5
4

cos ( )cos ( 3 )=

Using

( )
()