I was a mathematician and scientist born in the Duchy of Hannover in 1777. I contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, electrostatics, astronomy, and optics. Sometimes known as the princeps mathematicor (Latin: usually translated as "the Prince of Mathematicians", although Latin princeps also can simply mean "the foremost") and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", I had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians, if I do say so myself
linear regression
I was a child prodigy. There are many anecdotes pertaining to my precocity while a toddler, and I made my first ground-breaking mathematical discoveries while still a teenager. I completed Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, my magnum opus, in 1798 at the age of 21, though it would not be published until 1801. This work was fundamental in consolidating number theory as a discipline and has shaped the field to this day.
I was an ardent perfectionist and a hard worker. Some people have claimed that I was once interrupted in the middle of a problem and told that my wife was dying. Apparently I said, "Tell her to wait a moment till I'm done," although I really don't remember the incident.
a regular heptadecagon
I was never a prolific writer, refusing to publish works which I did not consider complete and above criticism. This was in keeping with my personal motto "pauca sed matura" ("few, but ripe"). After I died, some smart alecs trolled through my diaries and found that I had made several important mathematical discoveries years or decades before my contemporaries published them. Mathematical historian Eric Temple Bell estimated that had I have just rattled off these unripened theories, I would have advanced mathematics by fifty years.
I usually declined to present the intuition behind my often very elegant proofs—-it's better that they appear "out of thin air" and I would erase all traces of how I discovered them. I'm of the old school where all analysis (i.e. the paths one travelled to reach the solution of a problem) must be suppressed for sake of brevity.
I supported monarchy and opposed Napoleon, who really was an outgrowth of revolution. Had they have been around in my day, I would have supported Hannover 96 F.C.
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