The Life of Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
1791-1871
Born December 26, 1791 in Teignmouth, Devonshire UK, Charles Babbage was known as the “Father of Computing” for his contributions to the basic design of the computer through his Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine was the earliest expression of an all-purpose, programmable computer. His previous Difference Engine was a special purpose device intended for the production of tables. Both the Difference and Analytical Engines were the earliest direct progenitors of modern computers.
Even as a little boy, he always tinkered with little mechanical things. He loved to take apart and dissect things. Eventually, Babbage was put in the care of a church school near Exeter, where the minister was told by his family to make sure that he was healthy, rather than well educated. Because of this concern, the minister didn't give Babbage enough work to keep him interested and occupied. Superstitious, despite a thorough Protestant upbringing, he developed an obsession with the Devil. He asked his classmates to tell him every folk tales they knew about what forms the Devil appeared in.
In 1812, he began his formal education at Trinity College and the University of Cambridge where he discovered his ability and interest in mathematics history. During that same year, he helped found the Analytical Society, whose object was to introduce developments from the European continent into English mathematics. He graduated from Peterhouse in 1814. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1816 and was active in the founding of the Royal Astronomical and the Statistical societies. He received his Masters in 1817 and began working as a mathematician, concentrating in calculating functions. It was his work with these complex calculations that led him to his most significant inventions: The Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. By previous standards, these engines were monumental in conception, size, and complexity.
In 1821, Babbage began the task of mechanizing the production of tables. In 1822, he proposed to build a machine called the Difference Engine to automatically calculate mathematical tables. The idea was to invent a calculating machine that could not only calculate without error but also automatically print the results. Difference engines were designed to calculate using the method of finite differences, a well-used principle of the time. It was only partially completed when he conceived the idea of a more sophisticated machine called the Analytical Engine.
Try to imagine life without calculators and how difficult it would be to solve a mathematical problem. However, Charles Babbage is the person to thank and be grateful that we do. Charles Babbage is the inventor of the Difference Engine as well as the Analytical Engine. These inventions were made to calculate different math problems with accuracy and prevent human beings from making errors when solving a math problem. In the following paragraphs you will learn about Charles Babbage early life, educational background, and how his inventions are relevant to today.
A) While working with Charles Babbage, Babbage and Ada flew back and forth filled with fact and fantasy. In her article, published in 1843, Lovelace's prescient comments included her predictions that such a machine could be used to compose complex music, to produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and scientific use. She was absolutely right.
*Rule one might not apply as much to elementary students if they are not required to dress out.
Computer engineering started about 5,000 years ago in China when they invented the abacus. The abacus is a manual calculator in which you move beads back and forth on rods to add or subtract. Other inventors of simple computers include Blaise Pascal who came up with the arithmetic machine for his father’s work. Also Charles Babbage produced the Analytical Engine, which combined math calculations from one problem and applied it to solve other complex problems. The Analytical Engine is similar to today’s computers.
Review the Rule(s): If a student disregards any of the classroom rules, the teacher can provide a
The last and most important rule is to be polite. My favorite example is reciting the Golden Rule to them. The Golden Rule is to “Treat others the way you want to be treated”. Inside of the classroom, each student is responsible for respecting themselves, their peers, and the teacher. All body parts, such as hands and feet, should be kept to themselves. Respect also goes as far as respecting school property. That means students should not damage or vandalize the items that the school provided in the
Ada Lovelace was the daughter of famous poet at the time, Lord George Gordon Byron, and mother Anne Isabelle Milbanke, known as “the princess of parallelograms,” a mathematician. A few weeks after Ada Lovelace was born, her parents split. Her father left England and never returned. Women received inferior education that that of a man, but Isabelle Milbanke was more than able to give her daughter a superior education where she focused more on mathematics and science (Bellis). When Ada was 17, she was introduced to Mary Somerville, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician who’s party she heard Charles Babbage’s idea of the Analytic Engine, a new calculating engine (Toole). Charles Babbage, known as the father of computer invented the different calculators. Babbage became a mentor to Ada and helped her study advance math along with Augustus de Morgan, who was a professor at the University of London (Ada Lovelace Biography Mathematician, Computer Programmer (1815–1852)). In 1842, Charles Babbage presented in a seminar in Turin, his new developments on a new engine. Menabrea, an Italian, wrote a summary article of Babbage’s developments and published the article i...
...udents to misbehave and disrupt a classroom the educational value of the class is compromised. Posting the expectations and rules within the classroom can also aid as a visual reminder about the appropriate behaviors that are expected of the students.
In 500 B.C. the abacus was first used by the Babylonians as an aid to simple arithmetic. In 1623 Wihelm Schickard (1592 - 1635) invented a "Calculating Clock". This mechanical machine could add and subtract up to 6 digit numbers, and warned of an overflow by ringing a bell. J. H. Mueller comes up with the idea of the "difference engine", in 1786. This calculator could tabulate values of a polynomial. Muellers attempt to raise funds fails and the project was forgotten. Scheutz and his son Edward produced a 3rd order difference engine with a printer in 1843 and their government agreed to fund their next project.
In the early 1800’s, a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage designed an automatic calculation machine. It was steam powered and could store up to 1000 50-digit numbers.
If I can have respect for my students as well as having them respecting each other, I believe this leads to a safe environment where learning can take place. I am not a stickler for gum chewing or eating and drinking as long as it does not interfere with learning and doesn’t make a mess. I would like to give my kids the freedom to eat or drink as long as they are responsible for their trash and mess. If it gets out of control, I will let them know that the privilege will be taken away, right from the beginning. I would enforce no hats on inside the building or classroom because not only can they be a major distraction, but it is not polite to have a hat on inside. Hats were made to protect your head and face from the sun and the sun does not shine inside
Technology continued to prosper in the computer world into the nineteenth century. A major figure during this time is Charles Babbage, designed the idea of the Difference Engine in the year 1820. It was a calculating machine designed to tabulate the results of mathematical functions (Evans, 38). Babbage, however, never completed this invention because he came up with a newer creation in which he named the Analytical Engine. This computer was expected to solve “any mathematical problem” (Triumph, 2). It relied on the punch card input. The machine was never actually finished by Babbage, and today Herman Hollerith has been credited with the fabrication of the punch card tabulating machine.
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
Discipline plays a key part in education. Respect from your students will make the classroom a better atmosphere. Rules should be established on the first day. Rules should be a thoughtful process so they can be carried out to be affective, but logical consequences. We do not want the students self esteem to be damaged.
... still be honored for being a pioneer in that field. Many of the attributes in his machines are still used in computers today. Without Babbage, people today might not have computers, or even calculators! Babbage also invented other devices, such as the speedometer and the cowcatcher. Even though he never saw his machines at work, Babbage’s legacy would still be honored a hundred years later. In the mid-twentieth century, a few scientists met with each other and decided that Babbage’s machines could be built. They constructed a version of the difference engine using his plans. Without Babbage, many of the things taken for granted by people now might not exist, and many discoveries based on his achievements might not have been made. Babbage’s remarkable life should be remembered for his achievements because without them, this world would not be the same.