Journal of the Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association
Volume 41 Issue 1, February 2004
82 – 84
Gauss and the Regular Heptadecagon
William Dunham
In 1796, the German journal Allgemeine Literaturzeitung carried the announcement of a remarkable mathematical discovery. The discoverer was an unknown adolescent named Carl Friedrich Gauss, and his achievement was the construction, with compass and straightedge only, of a regular heptadecagon; that is, a regular polygon of 17 sides. At the conclusion of this announcement, Professor E. A. W. Zimmermann added these words of endorsement:
