Quotes from book
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae

Disquisitiones Arithmeticae
Carl Friedrich GaussOriginal title Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (Latin, 1801)

The Disquisitiones Arithmeticae is a textbook of number theory written in Latin by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1798 when Gauss was 21 and first published in 1801 when he was 24. It is notable for having had a revolutionary impact on the field of number theory as it not only turned the field truly rigorous and systematic but also paved the path for modern number theory. In this book Gauss brought together and reconciled results in number theory obtained by mathematicians such as Fermat, Euler, Lagrange, and Legendre and added many profound and original results of his own.


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“But in our opinion truths of this kind should be drawn from notions rather than from notations.”

Carl Friedrich Gauss book Disquisitiones Arithmeticae

About the proof of Wilson's theorem. Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801) Article 76

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“The problem of distinguishing prime numbers from composite numbers and of resolving the latter into their prime factors is known to be one of the most important and useful in arithmetic. It has engaged the industry and wisdom of ancient and modern geometers to such an extent that it would be superfluous to discuss the problem at length. … Further, the dignity of the science itself seems to require that every possible means be explored for the solution of a problem so elegant and so celebrated.”

Carl Friedrich Gauss book Disquisitiones Arithmeticae

Problema, numeros primos a compositis dignoscendi, hosque in factores suos primos resolvendi, ad gravissima ac utilissima totius arithmeticae pertinere, et geometrarum tum veterum tum recentiorum industriam ac sagacitatem occupavisse, tam notum est, ut de hac re copiose loqui superfluum foret. … [P]raetereaque scientiae dignitas requirere videtur, ut omnia subsidia ad solutionem problematis tam elegantis ac celebris sedulo excolantur.
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801): Article 329

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