Number theory
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Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mathematics is the queen of the sciences—and number theory is the queen of mathematics." Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers, or defined as generalizations of the integers.
The distribution of prime numbers is a central point of study in number theory. This Ulam spiral serves to illustrate it, hinting, in particular, at the conditional independence between being prime and being a value of certain quadratic polynomials.
The Plimpton 322 tablet
Leonhard Euler
"Here was a problem, that I, a ten-year-old, could understand, and I knew from that moment that I would never let it go. I had to solve it." —Sir Andrew Wiles about his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.
Carl Friedrich Gauss
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Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and physicist who contributed to many fields in mathematics and science. He ranks among history's most influential mathematicians and has been referred to as the "Prince of Mathematicians". He was director of the Göttingen Observatory and professor for astronomy for nearly half a century, from 1807 until his death in 1855.
Portrait by Christian Albrecht Jensen, 1840 (copy from Gottlieb Biermann, 1887)
House of birth in Brunswick (destroyed in World War II)
Caricature of Abraham Gotthelf Kästner by Gauss (1795)
Old Göttingen observatory, c. 1800