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The case originally considered by Carl Friedrich Gauss was the quadratic Gauss sum, for R the field of residues modulo a prime number p, and χ the Legendre symbol.In this case Gauss proved that G(χ) = p 1 ⁄ 2 or ip 1 ⁄ 2 for p congruent to 1 or 3 modulo 4 respectively (the quadratic Gauss sum can also be evaluated by Fourier analysis as well as by contour integration).
This means that the sum of two independent normally distributed random variables is normal, with its mean being the sum of the two means, and its variance being the sum of the two variances (i.e., the square of the standard deviation is the sum of the squares of the standard deviations). [1]
In number theory, quadratic Gauss sums are certain finite sums of roots of unity. A quadratic Gauss sum can be interpreted as a linear combination of the values of the complex exponential function with coefficients given by a quadratic character; for a general character, one obtains a more general Gauss sum.
A practical application is an experiment in which one measures current, I, and voltage, V, on a resistor in order to determine the resistance, R, using Ohm's law, R = V / I. Given the measured variables with uncertainties, I ± σ I and V ± σ V, and neglecting their possible correlation, the uncertainty in the computed quantity, σ R, is:
The Gauss sum (,) can thus be written as a linear combination of Gaussian periods (with coefficients χ(a)); the converse is also true, as a consequence of the orthogonality relations for the group (Z/nZ) ×. In other words, the Gaussian periods and Gauss sums are each other's Fourier transforms.
In physics (specifically electromagnetism), Gauss's law, also known as Gauss's flux theorem (or sometimes Gauss's theorem), is one of Maxwell's equations. It is an application of the divergence theorem , and it relates the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric field .
In mathematics and statistics, sums of powers occur in a number of contexts: . Sums of squares arise in many contexts. For example, in geometry, the Pythagorean theorem involves the sum of two squares; in number theory, there are Legendre's three-square theorem and Jacobi's four-square theorem; and in statistics, the analysis of variance involves summing the squares of quantities.
It is named after the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. The graph of a Gaussian is a characteristic symmetric " bell curve " shape. The parameter a is the height of the curve's peak, b is the position of the center of the peak, and c (the standard deviation , sometimes called the Gaussian RMS width) controls the width of the "bell".