Gauss, Eisenstein, and the ``third proof of the quadratic reciprocity theorem: Ein kleines Schauspiel

DOI10.1007/BF03024287MaRDI QIDQ1345071zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Reinhard Laubenbacher, David Pengelley

Publication date 1 March 1995

Published in The Mathematical Intelligencer (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03024287

zbMATH Keywords

quadratic reciprocity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) History of number theory (11-03) Power residues, reciprocity (11A15)

Review text

The authors compare Gauss and Eisenstein, in a prescient dialogue, their arguments for the quadratic reciprocity law. With \(p\) and \(q\) the odd primes, Gauss begins by multiplying \(q\) by the \(p\)-residues less than \(p/2\) while Eisenstein uses the even \(p\)-residues. The reader is led to a new appreciation of Eisenstein's insight.

Recommendations

• Une démonstration géométrique de la loi de réciprocité quadratique
• A minimalist proof of the law of quadratic reciprocity
• An Elementary Proof of the Quadratic Reciprocity Law
• A variation on Gauss's third proof of the quadratic reciprocity law
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3009198

Cited in

(7)

• Gauss, Dirichlet, and the law of biquadratic reciprocity
• Eisenstein and the Jacobian varieties of Fermat curves
• Quartic residues and binary quadratic forms
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3009198 (Why is no real title available?)
• A variation on Gauss's third proof of the quadratic reciprocity law
• ``Voici ce que j'ai trouvé: Sophie Germain's grand plan to prove Fermat's last theorem
• A letter from Eisenstein's parents to Gauss

This page was built for publication: Gauss, Eisenstein, and the ``third proof of the quadratic reciprocity theorem: Ein kleines Schauspiel

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1345071)