Charles Babbage and the Engines of PerfectionOxford University Press, 1998 - 123 Seiten Charles Babbage, "the grandfather of the modern computer," did not live to see even one of his calculating machines at work. A dazzling genius with vision extending far beyond the limitations of the Victorian age, Babbage successfully calculated a table of logarithms during his years at Cambridge University, allowing mathematical calculations to be executed with extreme precision. Only the possibility of human error prevented complete accuracy, and Babbage understood that the only way to attain perfection is to leave the human mind entirely out of the equation. He devoted most of his life and spent most of his private fortune and government stipend trying to improve his difference engines and analytical engines. Bruce Collier and James MacLachlan chronicle Babbage's education and scientific career, his remarkably active social life and long string of personal tragedies, his forays into philosophy and economics, his successes and failures, and the biggest disappointment of his life-- his ingenious inventions were centuries ahead of the primitive capabilities of Victorian technology. |
Inhalt
501 | 14 |
In Scientific Circles | 20 |
Inventing the Difference Engine | 35 |
Urheberrecht | |
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Charles Babbage: And the Engines of Perfection Bruce Collier,James MacLachlan Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2000 |
Charles Babbage: And the Engines of Perfection Bruce Collier,James MacLachlan Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 1999 |
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40-digit numbers Ada Lovelace addition Aiken Airy Analytical Engine anticipating carriage Astronomical Society axes Babbage became Babbage's Difference Engine barrel basic Benjamin Brunel built calculate tables Calculating Engines calculating machine called Cambridge central drum central wheels Charles Babbage Charles's Children of Prometheus Clement Column D2 value complete construction cylinder Devon Difference Engine Duke electronic ENIAC father feet friends gears Georgiana Whitmore hardware Henry Herman Hollerith Howard Aiken Humphrey Davy idea invented inventor Isaac Newton Jacquard loom John Herschel Joseph Joseph Clement later Leibniz levers logarithms London Lucasian Luigi Menabrea machinery mathematical mathematicians MECHANICAL CALCULATORS mechanical notation medal Menabrea ment mill multiplying operation cards Pascal Philosopher principles published punched cards racks Royal Society Scheutz Schickard science in England Science Museum scientific scientists sequence step studs subtraction text continued threads Thur tion Tues University variable axis variable cards wrote