Mathematician:Charles Babbage
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Mathematician
English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer.
Originated, together with Ada Lovelace, the concept of a programmable computer.
Founder of both the Royal Statistical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society.
Nationality
English
History
- Born: 26 December 1791 in London, England
- Died: 18 October 1871 in London, England
Historical Note
The precise date of birth of Charles Babbage was at one point uncertain.
Many sources report it as $26$ December $1792$.
However, it has been established that in fact it was $26$ December $1791$.
Theorems and Definitions
Results named for Charles Babbage can be found here.
Definitions of concepts named for Charles Babbage can be found here.
Publications
- 1819: Demonstration of a theorem relating to prime numbers (The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal Vol. 1: pp. 46 – 49)
- 1826: A Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives
- 1830: Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes
- 1835: On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (4th ed.)
- 1837: The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, a Fragment
- 1841: Table of the Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from $1$ to $108000$
- 1851: The Exposition of 1851
- 1864: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
Notable Quotes
- On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
Sources
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Charles Babbage": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
- 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Babbage's engine
- 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Babbage, Charles (1792-1871)
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Babbage, Charles (1792-1871)
- 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Babbage, Charles (1792-1871)
- 2021: Richard Earl and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Babbage, Charles (1792-1871)