Carl Friedrich Gauss: Difference between revisions

In 1840, Gauss published his influential ''Dioptrische Untersuchungen'',<ref name="Bühler1">{{Cite book|title=Gauss: a biographical study|first=Walter Kaufmann|last=Bühler|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=1987|isbn=978-0-387-10662-5|ref=harv|pages=144–145}}</ref> in which he gave the first systematic analysis on the formation of images under a [[paraxial approximation]] ([[Gaussian optics]]).<ref name=Hecht>{{Cite book|title=Optics|first=Eugene|last=Hecht|publisher=Addison Wesley|year=1987|isbn=978-0-201-11609-0|ref=harv|page=134}}</ref> Among his results, Gauss showed that under a paraxial approximation an optical system can be characterized by its [[Cardinal point (optics)|cardinal points]]<ref name=Bass>{{Cite book|title=Handbook of Optics| first1=Michael|last1=Bass|first2=Casimer|last2=DeCusatis| first3=Jay|last3=Enoch|first4=Vasudevan|last4=Lakshminarayanan|publisher=McGraw Hill Professional|year=2009|isbn=978-0-07-149889-0|ref=harv|page=17.7}}</ref> and he derived the Gaussian lens formula.<ref name=Ostdiek>{{Cite book|title=Inquiry into Physics |first1=Vern J. |last1=Ostdiek|first2=Donald J.|last2=Bord|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2007|isbn=978-0-495-11943-2|ref=harv|page=381}}</ref>

 

 

In 1854, Gauss selected the topic for [[Bernhard Riemann]]'s inaugural lecture "Über die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen" (''About the hypotheses that underlie Geometry'').<ref name=Monastyrsky>{{Cite book|title=Riemann, Topology, and Physics|first=Michael|last=Monastyrsky|publisher=Birkhäuser|year=1987|isbn=978-0-8176-3262-5|ref=harv|pages=21–22}}</ref> On the way home from Riemann's lecture, Weber reported that Gauss was full of praise and excitement.<ref name="Bühler2">{{Cite book|title=Gauss: a biographical study|first=Walter Kaufmann|last=Bühler|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=1987|isbn=978-0-387-10662-5|ref=harv|page=154}}</ref>