Johann Bolyai (1802-1860)

The Hungarian Wolfgang Bolyai, Gauss's colleague at Gottingen, was trying with Gauss to prove the fifth postulate. Although Wolfgang Bolyai never succeeded, his true success was carried through his child that he described as having "deep blue eyes, which at time sparkle like two jewels" (Wolfe, 1945, p.49) in a letter that he sent to Gauss in 1803. And sparkle he did, Johann Bolyai was capable of proving the fifth postulate by denying it when he was only twenty-one years old. He wrote a letter to his father telling him that “out of nothing, [he] has created a strange new universe” (Wolfe, 1945, p.51). Gauss was very proud of the young Bolyai and exclaimed that he was "[…] overjoyed that it happens to be the son of [his] old friend who outstrip[ed] [him] in such a remarkable way" (Wolfe, 1945, p.52).

Reference: Wolf, H.E. (1945). Introduction to non-Euclidean geometry

Janos Bolyai, n.d., n.t., google image, retrieved on 4/11/2009
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