Carl Friedrich Gauss

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Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who lived from April 30, 1777 to February 23, 1855.

Among his many accomplishments were quickly calculating the sum of the integers from 1 to 100 in the first grade and proving that a 17-gon (or any $n$-gon where $n$ is a Fermat prime) is constructable. He even asked for a 17-gon to be put on his tombstone.

Gauss has several mathematical and physics terms named after him including the Gaussian integers, Gaussian distributions, and Gauss's Law.

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