Erica Greer and Paul Bibb Math 492.

001 Group Project

Computer Science and the History of Mathematics For thousands of years athe aticians had little else to aid the in their calculations onths! $ith no ath

besides a pen! paper! and abacus. "alculations could ta#e $ee#s or e%en &uarantee of accuracy. 's calculations &re$ lon&er and

ore co ple(! ad%ance ents in

beca e li ited by hu an ability. ' need arose for a de%ice to ease redundancy and circu %ent the tendency of hu an error. )ne of the first constructions of a co putin& de%ice $as a echanical addin& achine created by Blaise Pascal! a fa ous athe atician! philosopher! and

scientist. Built in 1*42! the hand+po$ered

achine consisted of a set of &ears each $ith a specific

nu ber of teeth. ,o e of the &ears had a sin&le tooth $hich $ould catch on the connectin& &ear only once e%ery re%olution. -his $ould turn the connectin& &ear one incre ent for each re%olution of the sin&le toothed &ear. -he connected &ear had ten teeth so $ould co plete a rotation once e%ery ten incre ents. .hen the &ears $ere cran#ed in the proper se/uence! the achine could add usin& the base ten syste . -he Pascaline! as the achine $as called! $as not

%ery successful. 0ot only $as it e(pensi%e to build and repair! but it also spa$ned feelin&s of technophobia in the athe aticians it threatened to replace.

Godfried 1eibni2 1*4*+131* also played a #ey role in the de%elop ent of co puter technolo&y. 'fter Pascal had de%eloped his i pro%e it by creatin& echanical addin& achine! 1eibni2 sou&ht to

ultiplication capability. -he result $as a cran# operated 4stepped ass produced echanical calculator. 'lthou&h his achine

rec#oner4! a predecessor of the first

operated in base 10! 1eibni2 also studied the binary or base 2 syste

used al ost e(cusi%ely in

co puters today. 1eibni2 published this research in his article Explication de l'Arithmtique Binaire. 'nother ajor step in the history of co puter science ca e fro uch of athe atician! ath in%ol%ed repetiti%e

philosopher! and en&ineer "harles Babba&e. 5e reali2ed that

caclulations. 6n his ti e! the people $ho perfor ed nu erical calculations $ere called co puters or 7one $ho co putes7. -he error rate of these flesh and blood co puters $as hi&h! so in 1829 Babba&e set out to in%ent a fully auto ated achine called the 7difference en&ine7. -he

difference en&ine $as desi&ned to be po$ered by stea ! follo$ a pro&ra ! and e%en print out results. 6t $as desi&ned to co pute the %aules of polyno ial functions. Because of his in%ention! Babba&e is called the 7father of co puters7. 'lthou&h supported financially by the British &o%ern ent! Babba&e ne%er co pleted his achine! but instead abandoned it for his ne(t idea!

the analytical en&ine. 5e tin#ered $ith desi&ns for the analytic en&ine! alon& $ith help fro 'u&usta 'da :in&! $ho created the first co puter pro&ra for his achine. ,adly Babba&e

ne%er finished his desi&n! but currently in En&land a project is under$ay to ha%e it built. 'u&usta 'da :in&! "ountess of 1o%elace ;181< + 18<2= studied athe atics and $as throu&h letters

particularly interested in Babba&e4s $or#. ,he corresponded fre/uently $ith hi and $as %ery fa iliar $ith his $or#. 6n 1849! translatin& 6talian

athe atician 1ui&i Menabrea4s

e oir on Babba&es analytical en&ine! she e(pounded hea%ily on so e areas $ith her o$n notes on the subject! cul inatin& in the first al&orith e%er to be $ritten solely for process by a in&. 5ad Babba&e built his

achine. -his is credited to be the be&innin& of co puter pro&ra achine! the pro&ra

$ould ha%e run correctly calculatin& the se/uence of Bernoulli nu bers. a#in& si&nifincant contributions to the buddin& field of

6n the 18004s ' erica be&an

co puter science. 5er an 5ollerith 18*0 + 1929! an a erican statistician! $or#ed for the "ensus )ffice fro 1839 to 1889. 6t $as here that he $as confronted $ith the proble of /uic#ly and

accurately tabulatin& data. 6t had ta#en 3 and a half years to tabulate the data fro

the census in

1830 and $as e(pected to ta#e o%er 10 years for co pletion by 1890. 5ollerith thus de%ised an in%ention based on the principles of >ac/uard4s punch card that $ould electronically tabulate the census data. -his achine $as ready for operation by the 1890 census! able to co plete the

necessary tabulation in only 2 and a half years. 5ollerith /uit $or#in& for the &o%ern ent! for in& his o$n co pany! the -abulatin& Machine "o pany! in 1924 this beca e the 6BM corporation. Mean$hile! at the turn of the 20th century! a pro inent athe atician ?a%id 5ilbert

appeared before the recently established 6nternational "on&ress of Mathe aticians $ith a collection of 29 proble s. 5is intent $as to inspire the ne(t century of future find solutions to so e of the ost i portant unresol%ed /uestions of athe aticians to

athe atics. )ne of the athe atical proble . $as sol%able or not.

/uestions he proposed as#ed if an al&orith 'nother /uestion as#ed if an al&orith ,e%eral

could be created to sol%e any

could deter ine $hether a proble

athe aticians ju ped on these /uestions! leadin& to the idea of co putability! the to be sol%ed in an effecti%e anner. ' leader in this field $as athe atician

ability of a proble

and lo&ician :urt Godel. Godel laid the foundation for further $or# in theorectical co puter science $ith his inco pleteness theore s. -hese theroe s put li itations on for al syste s and the theoretical capacity of co puters to sol%e proble s. Godel4s ideas on co putability $ere further e(plored by En&lish athe atican! lo&ician! and co puter scientist 'lan -urin&. 5e

reintroduced the idea of co putability usin& a theoretical co puter called a -urin& Machine. ' -urin& achine consists of a echanical readin&@$ritin& de%ice that has a finite set of states.

-hese states can be thou&ht of as the arran&e ent of &ears and pieces inside the readin&@$ritin& de%ice that $ill deter ine $hat the ne(t action of the -he $hich achine $ill be once it reads a &i%en input.

achine4s readin& de%ice scans an infinitely lon& tape of little bo(es! one at a ti e! so e of ay contains any of a finite nu ber of sy bols. -he actions of the achine are then

co pletely deter ined by its current state and the sy bol bein& read in the bo(. -he only has a li ited nu ber of abilities. For e(a ple! it could o%e one bo( to the ri&ht!

achine o%e one

bo( to the left! read the sy bol in the bo(! or chan&e states. -he successfully co puted its function as pro&ra

achine $ould halt $hen it had

ed. 'lan -urin& sho$ed that the set of achine. 5e also

co putable functions $as e(actly the set of functions co putable by a -urin&

sho$ed that a co putation perfor able by any hypothetical co puter could also be co puted by a -urin& achine. Based on these t$o ideas! -urin& sho$ed that any co puter could not $as sol%able or not. 6n fact! no &eneral al&orith can be created to

deter ine $hether a proble deter ine the sol%ability of a of co putable functions.

athe atical proble . -his is no$ a funda ental idea in the study

6n the technolo&ical $orld! co puters $ere beco in& 1ar&ely due to the $or# of 5ollerith! the punch card

ore and

ore sophisticated.

achine beca e $ell established! and in the

late 19904s 5o$ard 'i#en $or#ed $ith 6BM to create a fully auto atic di&ital co puter called the Mar# 1. -he achine could perfor all four arith atic operations $ith nu bers up to 29

deci al places. 6t also could calculate lo&arith ic and tri&ono etric functions all $ithout hu an inter%ention. 'round the sa e ti e! >ohn Mauchly and >. Presper Ec#ert $ere de%elopin& a hu&e electroninc co puter called the E06'" or Electrical 0u erical 6nte&rator and "o puter. 6t $as the first electronic di&ital co puter and could be repro&ra ed to sol%e a full ran&e of proble s! the E06'"! one had to

not just a li ited set of operations. 5o$e%er! in order to repro&ra reconfi&ure the $irin&! so it $asn4t pro&ra able in the

odern day sense. -his ca e $ith >on odern day co puters.

Aon 0e$ an4s de%elop ent of the E?A'"! $hich pa%ed the $ay for 6t &oes $ithout sayin& that in the absense of Fro Pascal! to 1eibni2! to 0e$ an!

athe atics! co puters $ould not e(ist.

odern day co puters ha%e lar&ely co e about throu&h the athe atics. -hrou&h the

$or# of

athe aticians. 6n turn! co puter science has also influenced

use of co puters! $e are able to calculate pi to the

illions of deci al places! an achie%e ent

e%en 'rchi edes could only drea

about. Godel4s and -urin&4s ideas on hypothetical co puter

al&orith s set a foundation for study of co putable functions. -oday the t$o fields are lar&ely unseparable! and their future ad%ance ents $ill be ine%itably lin#ed for a lon& ti e to co e.

Works Cited Davis, Martin. Computability and Unsolvability, 1958. McGra !"ill #ook Company $nc. %e &ork Greene, 'aura. Computer (ioneers, 1985. )ranklin Watts. %e &ork. "oyle, Mic*elle. Computers+ )rom t*e (ast to t*e (resent. 199,!-../. 0*ttp+11lecture.ein2an2.or21toc.*tml> $mmerman, %eil, 3Computability and Comple4ity3, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 Edition), 5d ard %. 6alta 7ed.8, U9' : 0*ttp+11plato.stan;ord.edu1arc*ives1;all-.111entries1computability1<.