When was Gauss important?

Answer 1

Gauss is ranked along with Archimedes and Newton as one of the three greatest mathematicians of all times. He is considered to be the founder of modern mathematics and made fundamental contributions to science. A child prodigy (he taught himself to read and count and corrected his father's calculation at the age of three), Gauss was way ahead of his contemporaries and made important discoveries decades before the other mathematicians (including the basis of non euclidean geometry).

Gauss works defined the mathematical path to be followed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He still serves as an inspiration to today's mathematicians.