GAUSS'S GIFT
R. Hu

The boundary of math, this man broke;

He worked with numbers; it’s how he spoke.

Advanced mathematics; that’s what he did;

Karl Gauss was a prodigious kid.

When he was young, his class was bad;

And so one day, his teacher got mad.

For punishment, he would make them sad;

He told them a hundred numbers to add!

Gauss was clever; he was very smart;

He turned mathematics, into an art!

The boy looked at the problem, all in his head;

“Set n equal to the sum”, that’s what he said!

Don’t look at the problem, plan and flat;

Solve it using algebra; it’s as easy at that!

“One plus a hundred, is a hundred and one!”

What is two times that, and you’re almost done!

There are a hundred parts, but then again,

Divide it by two to get five times ten!

Everyone suffered; Gauss had fun!

“Do fifty times a hundred, and fifty times one!”

Gauss had done it; he was a hero!

The answer has a five, and a zero!

Fifty-Fifty is the answer, he said;

“And I did all of that, in my head!”

He had triumphed, and without any tools,

He made the teachers, look like fools!

Gauss was amazing; no one came near;

This event sparked his career!

And thus mathematics has had a lift;

Karl Gauss truly had a gift!

A math revolution, has already begun,

This great man was second to none!

Gauss’s genius did not go to waste;

His life ended, but not with haste!

He left behind a gift, or so it would seem;

The heptadecagon, with two sides plus fifteen,

On his grave, the shape can be seen,

Math is science – and math is queen!