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Ada Lovelace

1) Ada Lovelace was a 19th century English mathematician and writer primarily known for her work with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine, which is widely considered to be the first computer program. 2) She was encouraged by her mother to pursue mathematics and science to dissuade her from following her poet father's questionable footsteps. Her tutor was renowned philosopher Mary Somerville. 3) In 1843, Lovelace translated an article about Babbage's Analytical Engine and wrote extensive notes that included a method for computing Bernoulli numbers, which is why her work is considered the first computer program. She saw the machine's potential beyond number crunching.

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23 views1 page

Ada Lovelace

1) Ada Lovelace was a 19th century English mathematician and writer primarily known for her work with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine, which is widely considered to be the first computer program. 2) She was encouraged by her mother to pursue mathematics and science to dissuade her from following her poet father's questionable footsteps. Her tutor was renowned philosopher Mary Somerville. 3) In 1843, Lovelace translated an article about Babbage's Analytical Engine and wrote extensive notes that included a method for computing Bernoulli numbers, which is why her work is considered the first computer program. She saw the machine's potential beyond number crunching.

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Ada Lovelace

Augustua Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron; 10th December


1815 – 27th November 1852) was a mathematician, writer, and public
figure throughout the early 19th century. She is primarily known for her
work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, and her notes on it are
widely regarded as the first ever computer program.

Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate child of the English poet Lord Byron. Wanting
to dissuade her from following in her father’s often questionable footsteps, her
mother, Lady Byron, encouraged Ada’s interest in maths and science. Her tutor was
Mary Somerville, a renowned philosopher and polymath and first woman to be
made an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society, who herself had far
too many achievements to be listed as a footnote in Lovelace’s story. Somerville
often visited Charles Babbage while he was working on his Analytical Engine and
was the one to introduce Lovelace to him in 1833. Lovelace and Babbage had a
long working relationship that lasted through most of Lovelace’s life.

In 1842 and 1843, Lovelace translated an article written by Italian engineer Luigi
Menabrea, who later went on to become the 7th
Prime Minister of Italy. This article concerned
Babbage’s hypothetical Analytical Engine, which had
not garnered much attention back in the UK. In
addition to translating it, Ada wrote a series of
seven notes accompanying it, which, in total, were
over three times the length of the original article.
Of most significance was Note G, which contained a Figure 1: Part of the Analytical Engine on
display. A full version has never been
full method for computing Bernoulli numbers using completed.
the Analytical Engine, a sequence of numbers used frequently in analysis and
statistics. Most of Babbage’s work concerned primarily simple computations on
these early conceptual computers, and so Lovelace’s Note G is widely regarded as
the first ever computer program. There is some argument that some of Babbage’s
earlier notes between 1837 and 1840 may constitute earlier computer programs,
but these are far less clear as examples and were never published. In most cases it
is still agreed that Lovelace’s contribution was significant, and that she was the
first to see the Analytical Engine’s true potential for Babbage’s machines working
on concepts more sophisticated than simply number-crunching.

In addition to her work on the Analytical Engine, Lovelace worked on designs for
human flight early in her youth, and later worked on papers on magnetism and the
mathematics of music, although neither were ever published during her time. She
also corresponded and worked with a great many influential figures in science and
beyond, including Michael Faraday (a key figure in the development of theory for
electromagnetism and electrochemistry), Andrew Crosse (an early pioneer of
electricity), and Charles Dickens, the English author. She died in 1852 of uterine
cancer.

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