Clearly we cannot make that statement.
It is widely known that “the greatest [mathematician] who ever got chalk on his coat” was a student of, or at least influenced by, Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (Lehrer, 1951).
Gauss (1777-1855) and Lobachevsky (1792-1856) were contemporaries, and, if anything, Lobachevsky was influenced by Gauss, not the other way around. Q.E.D.
Which?
That Carl Gauss is the greatest mathematician to ever live. I have demonstrated that there exists at least one greater mathematician - the “greatest ever to get chalk on his coat”.
I could be remembering wrong but weren’t some of Gauss’ achievements not published and discovered in his notes after someone else made a similar discovery. Not to diminish what he did (IIRC) but it had an impact on his influence.
Still, I’d go with Archimedes, Gauss and Newton.
Well, some of us got it…
It is hard to compare mathematician of different eras. No responder has mentioned David Hilbert, but he had Gauss to draw on. Gauss had Euler; Euler had Newton; Newton had Archimedes. All made astounding breakthroughs. I don’t see Cauchy in the same class. The most important thing he did was lose Galois’s manuscript and arguably contributing to his death at age 20. Although Ramanujan made some astounding discoveries, he didn’t open a new area of mathematics the way Galois did. Of course, Galois didn’t have a body of work and cannot be fairly compared to the really greats. But had he lived…
Still, I cannot make an argument that Gauss was not the greatest mathematician ever.
Karl Gauss may not be the very best mathematician ever, but he is a wonderful doctor, with such tiny fingers! Between those skills, there’s nothing he can’t work out with paper and pencils!
Well, even granting the existence of Lobachevsky’s student, and that he is the “greatest ever to get chalk on his coat”, I’m sure that Gauss and any other great mathematician would point out that you have not yet proved Gauss’s inferiority until you have also shown that Gauss did indeed get chalk on his coat.
There is also ambiguity about whether there exists-- besides non-chalked coated mathematicians who may or may not be greater – a chalk-coated *female *mathematician that is even greater than the song’s narrator.
Anyway all I have to say on the subject is:
I suppose you’ve heard of Aristotle, Newton, Gauss?
Morons.
I would have selected Gauss as the greatest up until I hit grad school, then Euler’s name is everywhere. So, even though Carl is my hero, Euler was the greatest.
I think we can all agree that their names are perfect though: short, even punchy, yet unusual. Imagine 'Ramanujanian elimination" as a chapter title - I would turn back based on the name alone.
Well, mathematician Tom Lehrer, PhD, Harvard, is by far the most influential mathematician on my life. His recorded teachings have permanently warped my world view. That and he invented jello shots.
Well, by that standard, Charles Dodgson is pretty high up there.
In order to be correct, you shouldn’t end you sentences with prepositions. Thus: Well, by that standard, Charles Dodgson is pretty high.
isn’t that the sort of consensus 3 among mathematicians
Abel, Galois, Ramanujan. Gauss, Euler, and Cauchy had way more time to work.
true but out of all those names, who do you say is the greatest
I’m a Gaussian. (That may ring a bell.)
Georg Cantor makes the list; only guy to explain infinity.
Paul Erdős might not be the greatest but he certainly should be in the top 3.
Gauss himself is supposed to have said:
As per the Wiki cite, the above quote is basically the recollection of what one of Gauss’s students (Moritz Cantor, not the infinity Cantor) recalls Gauss saying.
Here is a bio of Eisenstein. For a guy who died before he was 30, he seems to have done a lot. But, who am I to say?
Von Neumann bitch.