The following event occurred in 1786 at a primary school in Braunschweig, Germany: One day a teacher instructed his learners to determine the sum of the first 60 natural numbers.
After just a few seconds a nine year old boy provided the teacher with the correct answer.
How was little Carl Friedrich Gauss, this was his name, able to solve this problem so quickly?
Maybe he had the following image in his brilliant brain:
1 + 2+ 3+ 4 + ... + 29 + 3060 +59 +58 +57 + ... + 32 + 31
61 +61 +61 +61 + ... +61 + 61
Question 11101
Do a bit of research!
Gauss was a brilliant mathematician. Write a summary about the value that he contributed to
mathematics. Your summary must be one A4 page (typed - Arial 11 or written)! Remember to name
all the sources that you use during this investigation in a bibliography.
p. 2/5​