To begin a biography, which is simply a written history of a person’s life, it seems necessary to start at birth if such information is known. So, to begin Carl Friedrich Gauss was born on April 30, 1777 in what is now Brunswick, Germany. He was born an only son to parents of a lower class Family. As the story goes signs of his genius started to be noticed at very early on in his childhood. When he was only three years old it is said that while watching his father do finances on a sheet of paper, he caught an error made by his father and corrected it. One of the most reoccurring stories of his childhood, which many would argue, really solidifies his case for being a child prodigy come from primary school. One day to occupy students the instructor gave Gauss and his pupils the task of adding all the integers from 1 to 100 surely thinking that it would be beneficial and a challenge for students who were still at a beginner’s level in practicing their mathematical skills. Within seconds of posing the question Gauss had figured out the answer proclaiming “ligget se” (there it lies). Amazed that the answer was simply written on the slate and nothing else the instructor ask Gauss how he arrived at the result. The explanation followed: 1+ 100 =101, 2+ 99 =101, and so on until 49+ 52 =101and 50+ 51 =101. This is a total of 50 pairs of numbers, each which add up to 101 meaning the total sum is 50 * 101 = 5050. Basically Gauss found the symmetry property of arithmetic progressions by grouping the terms together. Following this display of brilliance from the child the instructor realized that he could not teach anything to Gauss so he special ordered a book from Hamburg and allowed his 18 year old assistant, who later became a professor of mathematics, guide and mentor him.  This symbolic event was the sign of great things to come. The great German mathematician and scientist would be remembered at the end of his life for his incredible contributions to many field in science and math such as numbers theory, differential geometry, analysis, geodesy, magnetism, optics and, astronomy.