Karl Friedrich Gauss: Average Student?"At school, Gauss showed little of his precocious talent until the age of nine, when he was admitted to the arithmetic class. The master had set what appeared to be a complicated problem involving the addition of a series of numbers in arithmetical progression.
"Although he had never been taught the simple formula for solving such problems, Gauss handed in his slate within seconds. For the next hour the boy sat idly while his classmates labored. At the end of the lesson there was a pile of slates on top of Gauss's, all with incorrect answers.
"The master was stunned to find at the bottom the slate from the youngest member of the class bearing the single correct number. He was so impressed that he bought the best available arithmetic textbook for Gauss and thereafter did what he could to advance his progress."
[Because the series forms a uniform sequence, the trick lies in multiplying the average number by the number of numbers to be added: sum = (n+1)/2 x n.]
[Trivia: "Mathematics is the Queen of the Sciences," Gauss once declared, "and Arithmetic the Queen of Mathematics."]
Gauss, [Johann] Karl Friedrich ["Prince of Mathematics"] (1777-1855) German mathematician
[Sources: E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics]More [Johann] Gauss anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Mathematics Precocity Students Teaching Ingenuity Child Prodigies Children
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