Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss or Gauß (; ) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, electrostatics, astronomy, and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field.

Gauss died in Göttingen, Hanover (now part of Lower Saxony, Germany) in 1855 and is interred in the cemetery Albanifriedhof there. Two individuals gave eulogies at his funeral, Gauss's son-in-law Heinrich Ewald and Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen, who was Gauss's close friend and biographer. His brain was preserved and was studied by Rudolf Wagner who found its weight to be 1,492 grams and the cerebral area equal to 219,588 square centimeters. Highly developed convolutions were also found, which in the early 20th century was suggested as the explanation of his genius.

Gauss's personal life was overshadowed by the early death of his first wife, Johanna Osthoff, in 1809, soon followed by the death of one child, Louis. Gauss plunged into a depression from which he never fully recovered. He married again, to a friend of his first wife named Friederica Wilhelmine Waldeck (Minna), but this second marriage does not seem to have been very happy as it was plagued by Minna's continuous illness. When his second wife died in 1831 after a long illness, one of his daughters, Therese, took over the household and cared for Gauss until the end of his life. His mother lived in his house from 1817 until her death in 1839.

Gauss had six children. With Johanna (1780–1809), his children were Joseph (1806–1873), Wilhelmina (1808–1846) and Louis (1809–1810). Of all of Gauss's children, Wilhelmina was said to have come closest to his talent, but she died young. With Minna Waldeck he also had three children: Eugene (1811–1896), Wilhelm (1813–1879) and Therese (1816–1864). Eugene immigrated to the United States about 1832 after a falling out with his father, eventually settling in St. Charles, Missouri, where he became a well-respected member of the community. Wilhelm also settled in Missouri, starting as a farmer and later becoming wealthy in the shoe business in St. Louis. Therese kept house for Gauss until his death, after which she married.

Gauss eventually had conflicts with his sons, two of whom migrated to the United States. He did not want any of his sons to enter mathematics or science for "fear of sullying the family name". His conflict with Eugene was particularly bitter. Gauss wanted Eugene to become a lawyer, but Eugene wanted to study languages. They had an argument over a party Eugene held, which Gauss refused to pay for. The son left in anger and immigrated to the United States, where he was quite successful. It took many years for Eugene's success to counteract his reputation among Gauss's friends and colleagues. See also the letter from Robert Gauss to Felix Klein on September 3, 1912.

Gauss was an ardent perfectionist and a hard worker. According to Isaac Asimov, Gauss was once interrupted in the middle of a problem and told that his wife was dying. He is purported to have said, "Tell her to wait a moment till I'm done." This anecdote is briefly discussed in W. Dunnington's "Gauss, Titan of Science" where it is suggested that it is an apocryphal story.

He was never a prolific writer, refusing to publish works which he did not consider complete and above criticism. This was in keeping with his personal motto "pauca sed matura" (few, but ripe). A study of his personal diaries reveals that he had in fact discovered several important mathematical concepts years or decades before they were published by his contemporaries. Prominent mathematical historian Eric Temple Bell estimated that had Gauss made known all of his discoveries, mathematics would have been advanced by 50 years.

A criticism of Gauss is that he did not support the younger mathematicians who followed him. He rarely, if ever, collaborated with other mathematicians and was considered aloof and austere by many. Though he did take in a few students, Gauss was known to dislike teaching. It is said that he attended only a single scientific conference, which was in Berlin in 1828. However, several of his students became influential mathematicians, among them Richard Dedekind, Bernhard Riemann, and Friedrich Bessel. Before she died, Sophie Germain was recommended by Gauss to receive her honorary degree.

Gauss usually declined to present the intuition behind his often very elegant proofs—-he preferred them to appear "out of thin air" and erased all traces of how he discovered them. This is fully, however briefly, explained by Gauss himself in his "Disquisitiones Arithmeticae", where he states that all analysis (i.e. the paths one travelled to reach the solution of a problem) must be suppressed for sake of brevity.

Gauss was deeply religious and conservative. He supported monarchy and opposed Napoleon, whom he saw as an outgrowth of revolution.

I learned about his life an d his child hood.I learned about his contributions on his article Disquusitions arithemeticate.

*List of topics named after Carl Friedrich Gauss

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* Gauss biography * * * Carl Friedrich Gauss, Biography at Fermat's Last Theorem Blog. * Gauss: mathematician of the millennium, by Juergen Schmidhuber * Gauss, general information, submit your site about Gauss. * Obituary: MNRAS 16 (1856) 80 * A discussion of childhood problem and the sources * Complete works * Carl Friedrich Gauss on the 10 Deutsch Mark banknote.

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