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Sat 04 Apr 2007A novel appliance of scienceFictionThe heyday of the German Enlightenment produced, among others, two men whose genius would have shone in any age. Carl Gauss (1777-1855) was one of the greatest mathematicians ever born.He applied mathematics to astronomy, geodesy and physics. His theory of numbers, published when he was 24, remains one of the most brilliant achievements in the history of mathematics. Gauss was a pioneer in applying mathematics to gravitation, electricity and magnetism, and provided an efficient way for calculating the orbits of asteroids. The gauss, a unit of magnetic measurement, is named for him. Einstein owed much to Gauss's ground-breaking work.