This chapter summarizes the story of the origins of computing by focusing on several key historical figures including Leibniz, the creator of calculus and binary numbers, Charles Babbage, Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace, George Boole, and Claude Shannon.
Gottfried Leibniz was a German mathematician and philosopher. Using Pascal’s calculating machine as inspiration, Leibniz developed a more sophisticated device called the step reckoner which could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and the extraction of roots. Leibnitz also invented the binary system which used 1 and 0 to
Charles Babbage was an English inventor who created the difference engine which when given the solution to a polynomial, could then solve for the solutions to nearby values. Like Leibnitz, Babbage was interested in efficiently computing arithmetic statements and designed a machine that could compute trigonometric and logarithmic equations.
Lady Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, a famous poet, contributed heavily to the computing world through both her writing and her visions for the capabilities of computing. Introduced to Charles Babbage at one of his many dinner parties in 1833, Lovelace saw the prototype for his difference engine, which inspired her future communication with Babbage. In describing possible applications for the analytic engine, which was never actually built by Babbage, Lovelace wrote out a program, thought to be the first computer program, for a calculation the engine could do. Furthermore, she foresaw the possible applications for the machine beyond calculation.
George Boole, an English mathematician, published many papers contributing mathematics, but his most notorious development was Boolean algebra. Although it was a theoretical approach to computing, his work is the foundation of modern computing. Using these theories, Claude Shannon, an American mathematician, discovered that Boolean logic is the perfect model for switching theory and the design of digital circuits which underlie all electronic digital computers.
Sean→ wrote the introductory paragraph and the paragraphs on Leibniz and Babbage
Kate→ wrote the paragraph on Lady Ada Lovelace
Luis→ wrote the paragraph on Boole and Shannon
