Product Description
A wonderfully narrated tale following the life of Carl Friedrich Gauss, the 18th century mathematician, from his prodigious childhoodto his extraordinary achievements that earned him the title Prince of Mathematics . Along the way, the author introduces her young readers to a different culture, the era of small states in Germany where advancement on merits, such as Gauss , was supportedby enlightened rulers, competing for intellectual excellence and economic advantage through scientific progress in their small states.Based on extensive research of original and secondary sources, the author has created a historical narrative that will inspire young readers and even curious adults with a story full of human touch and personal achievement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Gauss: Price of Mathematics
The book is suitable for school going children with anecdotes. It is not for serious study for understanding work of Gauss and why he is Prince of Mathematics. US$ 19.95 is price of the book and is not worth the value.
M Satyanarayana

Great high level overview of Gauss's Life
This was a great overview of Gauss's life and career.I have an engineering background and used Gauss's mathematics during my college days and engineering work.This book was written so that one could read and appreciate it with a very limited understanding of algebra and trigonometry.I knew very little about Gauss's life before reading this text, and I am happy with what I learned about him.

This book gave several brief examples of how Gauss thought about math problems as a young man.For example, the author describes several mathematical problems that Gauss solved in a very unique way compared to his peers (e.g. quickly finding the sum of all integers from 1 to 100).The book contains descriptions of how a young Gauss approached and thought about his unique solutions.

Several areas of Gauss's expertise were only briefly described (e.g. his work on magnetism).I would have liked to have had more technical detail included as an appendix to the text.

Prince of Math
This is a perfect book for a teenager even if she or he is not a math fan; well-written, always interesting.

A C Tort

An in-depth and intricate story of the amazing life of a revolutionary mathematician
The Prince Of Mathematics: Carl Friedrich Gauss, knowledgeably and engagingly written by mathematics teacher M. B. W. Tent, is an in-depth and intricate story of the amazing life of a revolutionary mathematician. Based upon stories told by Gauss, The Prince Of Mathematics reveals an intimate and vivid account of an 18th century's mathematician's life. The Prince Of Mathematics is an accurate and true understanding of a man who in his time was a prolific contributor to the science of mathematics. For its educational and informative content, The Prince Of Mathematics is very highly recommended reading to all mathematics history enthusiasts, as well as those in study of cultural paradigm oriented biographical study.

Wonderful portrait
This book is great for all ages. It tells the life of Gauss while explaining his mathmatical concepts at the same time. The words are understandable for all ages and it is wonderful that somone researched his life. Tent explains his life in an entertaining manner that allows the reader to really realize his journey in life. ... Read more

Product Description
Long out-of-print and almost impossible to find on theused book market, this valuable piece of scholarship is being reissuedin an augmented form with introductory remarks, an expanded andupdated bibliography, and a commentary on Gauss's mathematical diary,by the eminent British mathematical historian, Jeremy Gray. Alsoincluded are personal reminiscences about Dunnington himself, byFritz-Egbert Dohse, who not only knew Dunnington but also had aninteresting connection to Gauss: his great-grandfather, ChristianHeinrich Hesemann, was the sculptor whose bust of Gauss is widelyknown and is pictured in the book.

This biography of Gauss, by far the most comprehensive in English, isthe work of a professor of German, G. Waldo Dunnington, who devotedmost of his scholarly career to studying the life of Germany'sgreatest mathematician. The author was inspired to pursue this projectat the age of twelve when he learned from his teacher in Missouri thatno full biography of Gauss existed at the time. His teacher wasGauss's great granddaughter, Minna Waldeck Gauss. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good for the Math/Science History Nerd
This book is a very dry and scholarly biography of Gauss. It shows an incredible amount of research on the part of the author and includes pretty much anything you would want to know about Gauss. It also includes a large number of letters that he sent and received which is a very nice touch. Despite most of it being fairly dry it does include some very fun stories. You will defiantly have a "favorite Gauss story" when you finish reading this book.
The author does an exceptional job on his researcher and his book contains a wealth of knowledge. All of the information is portrayed well, but without any type of personal flair. The book is well organized if one where using it for research purposes. However, if you plan to pick this up and read it cover to cover the chronology of his life is sometimes hard to grasp.
Overall this is definitely the best biography there is on one of the most important scientist of the early 19th century. I would recommend it if you are truly interested in the topic. I myself enjoy much more talking about what I learned from this book than actually reading it.

The best book available on the life of Gauss
Being an aficianado of the history of mathematics and science I did not hesitate to buy this book; and I would recommend it to anyone who loves stories about mathematicians. But it is much more of a (dry) 'unmathematical' biography than I expected. The author has done an amazing amount of research---the book is teeming with anectdotal stories about people related to Gauss and is filled with references to source material. This is certainly a book I enjoy 'having read' more than I enjoyed reading.

At last - a reprint !!
Thank goodness this excellent book has finally been reprinted. This book has been my primary source for research information on the early life of Gauss, and provides a lot of really useful information on this fascinating genius. I have ordered this book as I myself am writing a book which details how some of Gauss' ideas have influenced modern life.

By the way - MATHSINGER - if you read this; I have taken the liberty of adding you to my Amazon friends list - if you would like to correspond with me about your illustrious progenitor I would be delighted. Any insight into this fascinating individual and giant of science would be most helpful in the preparation of my own book...

Finally Republished !!
I am so glad to see this book back in print.I am a great great great granddaughter of Gauss and have been referring people to this book for the last several years, always knowing it was hard to find.It is my primary reference for Gauss, and much of it is very readable.It addresses Gauss' personal life, as well as his mathmatics, and the original edition has short biographies of Gauss' children, and a genealogy. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This Book Is In German. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An important resource for researchers!
This book is a compiled list of materials related to Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the most important mathematicians in history.This index shows the location of Gauss documents and their translations, as well as letters and published correspondence in collections around the world.As noted in the preface, this book has a list of primary sources and translations, a guide to the letters, and an extensive listing of secondary sources, placing special emphasis on those secondary works pertaining to the history mathematics.There is a section explaining how to use the guide and what different notations mean where used throughout the book.There is also a list of names known to Gauss.This bibliography is vital if you are attempting to write a thesis or biography of Gauss!

Be careful!! This is a biliography and not BIOGRAPHY
I bought the book originally thought that is a book on the life of Gauss. How disappointed when I recieved it and found that it is actually a BIBLIOGRAPHY!!! Unless you are doing re-search, do not buy this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Great Disappointment
The good thing about this book is the collection of illustrations. I assume from the biographies cited in the footnotes that the author has read them and that the biographical and non-scientific information is basically correct. The mathematics in the book, however, is not only wrong, but egregiously so.
Mathematics is not a popular subject. Its emphasis on precision makes it impossible to present fully accurately in a popularisation; some simplification must occur. And some fudge words ("such and such a theorem more-or-less states", "in most cases", etc.). Those of us who are mathematicians know and expect that, and, though we may cringe sometimes when reading a lay description of a piece of mathematics, we accept this as a fact of life. That said, I am appalled at Krista West's book. She doesn't merely oversimplify, but actually makes absurd claims, most glaringly on page 73, where, in discussing geodetic surveying, she states that from the length of one side of a triangle all the angles and the area can be determined. ROFL.
The sad thing is that, had any mathematician--or undergraduate mathematics major--read over the book before publication, many of the errors would have been caught. I have never looked up the algorithm for finding the date of Easter, but I don't need to know it to recognise that something is wrong in her description on page 18. The second and third steps are:
divide the year by 7 and call the remainder b
divide the year by 7 and call the remainder c.
If one of those 7's is not a typo, whoever made up the algorithm has some explaining to do! I should say that I verified my doubts by following the steps to calculate the date of Easter for this year and got an incorrect date. However, this could not be done: Each of the next two steps in the algorithm introduces new unexplained variables for which values could not be determined! If the algorithm is to be included in the book, it might as well be stated in full and correctly. If it is that simple, the child reading the book could then amuse himself or herself by calculating the date of Easter for this or next year; if it is too complicated, the child could at least see for himself or herself that it is complicated. No purpose is served, however, by giving an incorrect or incomplete algorithm.
I do know the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity and can testify that what is offered as its statement on page 53 is not it. Indeed, that what is stated makes no sense at all can be recognised without knowledge of the law in question.
I could continue in this vein, but I think the general picture has been well-enough painted that there is no need to continue. Except--it should be pointed out that a glossary in which key terms are "explained" by incorrect and nonsensical definitions is not helpful in the least.

Do Not Buy This Book !Poor Scholarship - Poorly Written
This small book (and by inference, the other titles in the series) is a stiking example of extraordinary poor scholarship.It portends to be a biographical history of one of the most prolific thinkers in science and mathematics of all time: Carl Friedrich Gauss. It is extraordinarily flawed.As a teacher of mathematics, I would reject this as a term paper for a junior high school class.

It has serious errors in at least 3 categories:
1) Sins of Commission
2) Sins of Ommission
3) Errors in judgment on content, style, extent, and particularly, of usage of the English language.

1) Errors of Commission:
This text has clearly been written by a person with limited or no knowledge of mathematics and demonstrably no knowledge of Gauss's enormous contributions.From it's dedication "To my math-minded husband...," through nearly every explanation or example throughout the book, the ignorance of science and mathematics is demonstrated.Here are a couple of the key errors which only highly the major lack of understanding of the subject on which the author writes:
a) The author (p.30) explains the hugely significant contribution of the "Method of Least Squares" in modern statistics using a table of nearly equal values of the measurement of the length of a line, which explains a simple average, but NOT the least squares principle.The (correct) statement of "use it to find the best-fit line for a curve" is essentially an afterthought.

b) The discription of Gauss's "Fundamental Theorem of Algebra" (p. 45) is erroneous:Stating that all polynomials have the number of solutions equal to the largest exponent.Check this on the equation x-squared plus 1 = 0.There are NO solutions in the real number plane.Only when complex numbers are admitted is the statement true.Further, the author's statement that the Theorem is misnamed is preposterous: Solving simultaneous equations IS Algebra.

2) Errors of Omission:
a) Although the author writes of Gauss's productive relationship with Weber and their extensive contribution to the science and understanding of magnetism, the author appears totally unaware that "Gauss's Law of the Magnetic" is of little practical use, while its counterpart "Gauss's Law of Electric Field" is not only of theoretical value, but provides important computational results as well.Gauss's Law of Electricity does not even appear to be mentioned in the book.
b) In the extreme, the ommission of a thorough description of the Gaussian Distribution in all its ramifications as arguably the most important contribution to statistical inference (and therefore, to scientific inductive reasoning from physical data) is nothing less than a third strike with two outs in the last half of the ninth. The only mention in the entire book is in the 'Mathematical Terms with "Gauss" in their names' list on the bottom of the last page of text.
c) Most of the other key mathematical contributions that Gauss made appear only as a word in that list - 'Mathematical Terms with "Gauss" in their names' list.

3) Writing style and use of language:"See Jane run. See Dick run. See Dick and Jane run.See Dick run fast."Come on !The vocabulary and use of the English language in this text is an insult to anyone with an education beyond first grade, and certainly anyone who would have the interest and intellect to read this book.

Seriously, the whole text is demeaning to the intelligence of its reader, the choices of subject matter were clearly based on a pittance of knowledge of the subject,and the errors of commission and omission are extant throughout.The book was obviously created in a very short time, with little subject matter knowledge, little scholarship, and edited much the same, the credentials of the Editorial Consultant not withstanding.What seems clear is that this book and the series project had principally fiscal motivation and little educational thought.

Regarding the other books in the series:An old proverb:"When the clock strikes 13, you not only know the 13th strike is wrong, you seriously question the other 12." ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) is generally ranked with Archimedes and Newton as one of the three greatest mathematicians that ever lived. His work, in terms of its all-pervasive importance, its painstaking attention to detail, and its completely developed beauty, somehow reminds one of the work of Beethoven, his contemporary and compatriot. Gauss was the last of the truly universal mathematicians and scientists, whose realm embraced virtually all the domains of pure and applied mathematics, and astronomy, and theoretical and experimental mechanics, hydrostatics, electrostatics, magnetism, optics.... "Gaussian" as a modifier has been applied to a remarkable assortment of mathematical terms, and "gauss" is the universal unit for the intensity of magnetic force.

Tord Hall's biography concisely presents the outer events of Gauss's life, but the emphasis is, as it should be, on the inner core of that life—the mathematical creations. These are unfolded in such a way as to be clearly understandable to readers of modest mathematical attainment, but more than that, such readers are given a proper sense of the intellectual excitement and aesthetic completeness of Gauss's achievement.

Gauss's external life was fairly uneventful and conventional. His solid, conservative, burgherlike exterior served to mask and protect an incredibly fecund mental flux, as evidenced by a fifty-year period of unflagging creative output. During this time he was Director of the Astronomical Observatory in Göttingen and as such rarely gave formal lectures on purely mathematical subjects. In addition, because of his Olympian reserve and standoffishness from his colleagues, he was disinclined to present his discoveries informally; he chose instead to reveal them only when they were embodied in the form of perfectly developed papers, which can be regarded as integral works of art, finished and unutterable.

This disposition prevented Gauss from adding still more illustrious discoveries to his credit: for besides those presented in the large body of his formal papers, a study of his journal and other posthumous papers reveals that he had achieved (but did not publish, because he had not developed the work up to his high standards of completeness and rigor) some of the most important results later obtained by Abel, Cauchy, Jacobi, and others. Gauss combined an acute sense of priority of discovery with distaste for public controversy, and made his claims discretely, in personal letters. Hall's account makes full use of these letters and the journal entries.

In describing Gauss's work, the author carefully describes the problems Gauss set for himself, and the solutions he uncovered. Hall also outlines the mathematical approach or "style" of the proofs—the lines joining the problems and the solutions—when these are too involved to be presented in full form. The topics so discussed include (among others) the fundamental theorem of algebra, the 17-gon, geodesic triangles and Gaussian curvature, non-Euclidean geometry, elliptic functions, arithmetic residues, and the determination of Ceres' orbit, and the first workable telegraph, constructed in collaboration with Wilhelm Weber. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Intro to Gauss, But Math Types Will Want More Bio Info
There are two audiences for this book.The first would be those steeped in math, who know the math of Gauss but not the man.The second would be those, like me, who have heard of the man but know little of his work or life.

This book may be thin fodder for the first.Like many intellectual giants, there was little externally interesting in Gauss' life.His most vigorous physical activities were geodesic surveys in the summer and astronomical observations.But the mind, the thoughts ...

Gauss, in the eyes of Hall, was the third greatest mathematician of all time, behind only Archimedes and Isaac Newton.The range of his scientific and mathematical accomplishments is great:plotting Ceres' orbit -- the first time that was ever done for an asteroid; pinning the Earth's magnetic field as originating in its interior; introducing the statistical concepts of Gaussian (nomal) distribution, error curves, and the least square fitting of data; establishing non-Euclidean geometry; conducting geodesic surveys; pioneering work on elliptic functions and hypergeometric series.Hall briefly puts these accomplishments in the greater context of scientific and mathematical history

But his protean intellect didn't stop with math.He originally was interested in becoming a philologist and read Russian, Danish, classical Greek and Latin, and English (and was a fan of Sir Walter Scott).He also put his stastical and actuarial knowledge to practical use in investing.Besides student fees, he only earned 1,000 thalers a year as a professor but died with an estate worth 153,000 thaler.

As for the life of Gauss, we meet a child prodigy from a very humble background, estranged from a father whose coldness he would emulate towards his own sons.Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig, was the royal patron who lifted him out of his common existence and encouraged him.The Duke's death, from wounds sustained fighting Napoleon at the Battle of Auerstadt, made Gauss a lifetime political conservative.A blissful first marriage too soon ended with his wife's death.Two of his six children emmigrated to Missouri and did well for themselves.One son, Eugene, always had strained relations with his father but was closest to possessing his gifts in languages and math.He could do elaborate calculations in his head and remember long figures well enough to catch them incorrectly dictated to him.He also helped compose a dictionary of a Sioux language for use by missionaries.

The words Hall uses most often to describe Gauss' personality are "Olympian" and "cold".His personal motto seems to have been "Few But Ripe." when publishing his mathematical discoveries.He only considered a mathematical proposition finished when he could present in full form without the "scaffolding" showing of how he arrived at it.He also wanted his work to be of general significance, and he also didn't want to argue his ideas with intellectual inferiors.A consequence of this was that several mathematicians were credited with first proposing ideas that were later shown, in his notebooks, to have been discovered earlier by Gauss.It was disconcerting for other mathematicians who wrote him of some new theorem or proof they had developed to have him write back that their ideas followed some he had already had, sometimes followed by a comment that they had saved him the work of polishing his ideas.This was not idle boasting.Gauss didn't lie.However, in the case of Johann Bolyai, son of a mathematician friend of Gauss and developer of hyperbolic geometry, this lead to a strained relationship.When Gauss became aware of Bolyai's invention of a non-Euclidean geometry, he didn't praise the work because it followed his own discoveries of 30 years before.Gauss could not resolve the conflict of wanting to preserve the priority of his own work and yet also wanting to praise important work done independently.

The legacy of his mathematical work -- as well as his physical studies -- is secure.No less than Albert Einstein said that, without Gauss, there would have been no theory of relativity.

A good introduction to the signficance of Gauss and his work, but those who already know his work will no doubt want more about the man.

Gauss is really cool!
Carl Friedrich Gauss is undisputed one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. This book provides personal information as well as mathematical explainations of work (including geodesy, celestial orbits, non-Euclideangeometry, etc.). How did one person make so many mathematical advancements?Amazing! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more