Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Carl Friedrich Gauss
     
         A German mathematician (1777 - 1855), one of all time
        greatest.  Gauss discovered the {method of least squares} and
        {Gaussian elimination}.
     
        Gauss was something of a child prodigy; the most commonly told
        story relates that when he was 10 his teacher, wanting a rest,
        told his class to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100.  Gauss
        did it in seconds, having noticed that 1+...+100 = 100+...+1 =
        (101+...+101)/2.
     
        He did important work in almost every area of mathematics.
        Such eclecticism is probably impossible today, since further
        progress in most areas of mathematics requires much hard
        background study.
     
        Some idea of the range of his work can be obtained by noting
        the many mathematical terms with "Gauss" in their names.  E.g.
        {Gaussian elimination} ({linear algebra}); {Gaussian primes}
        (number theory); {Gaussian distribution} (statistics); {Gauss}
        [unit] (electromagnetism); {Gaussian curvature} (differential
        geometry); {Gaussian quadrature} (numerical analysis);
        {Gauss-Bonnet formula} (differential geometry); {Gauss's
        identity} ({hypergeometric functions}); {Gauss sums} ({number
        theory}).
     
        His favourite area of mathematics was {number theory}.  He
        conjectured the {Prime Number Theorem}, pioneered the {theory
        of quadratic forms}, proved the {quadratic reciprocity
        theorem}, and much more.
     
        He was "the first mathematician to use {complex numbers} in a
        really confident and scientific way" (Hardy & Wright, chapter
        12).
     
        He nearly went into architecture rather than mathematics; what
        decided him on mathematics was his proof, at age 18, of the
        startling theorem that a regular N-sided polygon can be
        constructed with ruler and compasses if and only if N is a
        power of 2 times a product of distinct {Fermat primes}.
     
        (1995-04-10)