Gauss (1777-1855) was the most outstanding astronomer and mathematician of our time, and also made some contributions to the electromagnetics of physics, and now a unit of electromagnetism is named after him. Mathematicians call him the "Prince of Mathematics."
Born into a poor family, Gauss was the son of a farmer, and at an early age he showed extraordinary talent in mathematics. At the age of 3, he can correct mistakes in his father's calculations. At the age of eight, he entered a rural primary school. The teacher who taught math was a man from the city who thought it was too much to teach a few young monkeys to read in a remote area. And he has some prejudices: poor children are born stupid, teaching these stupid children to study does not have to be serious, if there is a chance, you should punish them, so that you can add some fun to this boring life.
This day is the day when math teachers are depressed. When the students saw the teacher's depressed face, their hearts cringed, knowing that the teacher would catch these students today and punish them. "You count for me today the sum from 1 plus 2 plus 3 all the way to 100. Whoever can't figure it out will punish him for not being able to go home for lunch. After the teacher said this, he picked up a novel and sat down in a chair without a word. The children in the classroom picked up the slab and began to calculate: "1 plus 2 equals 3, 3 plus 3 equals 6, 6 plus 4 equals 10..." Some children added to a number and then erased the result of the slab, and then added, the number is getting bigger and bigger, very difficult to calculate. Some of the children's small faces were flushed, and some of them were sweating from their palms and foreheads. Less than half an hour later, Little Gauss picked up his slate and stepped forward, "Teacher, is that the answer?" The teacher did not look up, waved the fat hand, and said, "Go, go back and count again!" Wrong. He thought there would be no answer so soon. But Gauss stood still and held out the slate in front of the teacher: "Teacher! I think the answer is correct. The math teacher originally wanted to roar angrily, but when he saw that the stone slab had neatly written such a number: 5050, he was amazed, because he himself had calculated, and the number he got was also 5050, how could this 8-year-old ghost get this value so quickly? Gauss explained a method he discovered, which was the method used by the ancient Greeks and Chinese to calculate the series 1+2+3+...+n.
Gauss's discovery made the teacher feel ashamed, and felt that his previous views were wrong with being blind and contemptuous of the children of poor families. He also taught seriously in the future, and often bought some math books from the city to study on his own and lent them to Gauss. With his encouragement, Gauss later made some important studies in mathematics.