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posted by martyb on Tuesday July 04 2017, @01:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the it-all-adds-up dept.

Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) is celebrated as "the first programmer" for her remarkable 1843 paper which explained Charles Babbage's designs for a mechanical computer. New research reinforces the view that she was a gifted, perceptive and knowledgeable mathematician.

Christopher Hollings and Ursula Martin of Oxford Mathematics, and Adrian Rice, of Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, are the first historians of mathematics to investigate the extensive archives of the Lovelace-Byron family, held in Oxford's Bodleian Library. In two recent papers in the Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics and in Historia Mathematica they study Lovelace's childhood education, where her passion for mathematics was complemented by an interest in machinery and wide scientific reading; and her remarkable two-year "correspondence course" on calculus with the eminent mathematician Augustus De Morgan, who introduced her to cutting edge research on the nature of algebra.

[...] The papers, and the correspondence with De Morgan, can be read in full on the website of the Clay Mathematics Institute, who supported the work, as did the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

[There apparently had been many claims that she lacked the background to have been able to produce the works attributed to her. These papers serve to show that she did, indeed, have the necessary background, curiosity, dedication, and gift for insights to have done so. -Ed.]

Source: University of Oxford Mathematical Institute


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @01:16PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @01:16PM (#534787)

    People have long said Einstein benefited greatly not only from others, but from the women around him in particular.

    Nobody escapes the naysayers.

    It's just that now we're living in an age when youthful women are worshiped even more than they have been in the past, so this is "news".

    I suppose it's male privilege that only a man's intellectual credibility is allowed to be questioned seriously.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @01:34PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @01:34PM (#534791)

    your trolling is lacking. (and internally inconsistent)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @02:31PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @02:31PM (#534799)

      We're all waiting with bated breath for your rich logical analysis.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @09:14PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @09:14PM (#534935)

        AC spelled "bated" correctly? Must be a young woman!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @09:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @09:30PM (#534940)

          Young women are expert mistressbaters.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @11:48PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @11:48PM (#534975)

          Here. [phrases.org.uk]

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Tuesday July 04 2017, @02:40PM

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday July 04 2017, @02:40PM (#534803)

    Let's celebrate a great geeky hacker who did some interesting stuff. More a Jobs than a Torvalds, but that's okay too!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @07:04PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @07:04PM (#534892)

    - As a kid Einstein was a loner. Never liked to associate with other kids so much at school or at home. While other kids played in the yard, he stayed inside by himself and daydreamed. He had "no understanding how to relate to people" and had temper problems as well. One time he threw a chair at his tutor and he fleet and never returned. Also, he would always throw objects at his sister's head.

    -His mother made him play the violin, something he would continue to do the rest of his life He said of Mozart " like all great beauty, his music was pure simplicity." He would often play the violin in the middle of the night, especially when he is having trouble with his theories. In the middle of the playing he would yell "I've got it!" and the answers to his questions would come in the midst of his playing.

    - He would always forget his keys almost every time he leaves the house. Whenver his friends come over he would say "sorry i forgot my keys again" then wakes up the landowner and have her open the door for him. He often loses his luggages while traveling as well.

    - He graduated at the button of his class, and for almost 10 years could not find an professional job anywhere. He would write letters to professors acquiring a job as teacher's assistance, but no one bothered to reply back to him. His resumes and letters were weak and unprofessionally done.

    - Despite his discoveries and genius, he was a bad teacher. His lectures were "disorganized", and showed no teaching ability.

    - He got his first girlfriend when he was 16. A beautiful girl named Marie who his mother loved. The two exchanged love letters back and forth. However she was not smart enough to catch up with him, so he eventually lost interest in the girl. He was cold at heart and stopped writing back to her when she desperately wanted to see him. He later write to the girl's mother to end the relationship. Marie fell into a nervous depression and eventually married the manager of a watch factory.

    - A few years later Einstein fell madly in love with the only girl in his physics class in college by the name of Mileva Maric. His parents and friends hated her and didn't understand what Einstein saw in her. She was ugly and had no personality. She wasn't exactly healthy and limps when she walks. However, Einstein fell in love with her "enticing touch of melancholy" and intelligence. The two exchanged letters that were intellectually intensive, often mixing science and love in the same passages. However, Einstein's stubbornness and lack of patient made him grew apart from his family. Einstein offered his wife a deal : If he was to win the Nobel Prize someday, and if she gave him a divorce, he would give her the prize money. 17 years after the divorce he finally won the award, and indeed she took all the money! Einstein and Mileva had an illegitimate daughter and Einstein did not tell his mother, sister or anybody else about the birth of his daughter. Evidence of her existence were supressed and hidden until 1986... 2 years after I was born. Mileva eventually "collaborate" with Einstein in the Special and General theory of relativity, but whether or not she came up with any of the ideas reminds a debate.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @08:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @08:00PM (#534909)

      Einstein [...] would always throw objects at his sister's head.

      Don't we all?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @01:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @01:59PM (#535177)

    Meh, it is okay for people to question things (isn't that the central idea of science?), but this article didn't "explode" anything, merely confirmed what I had already been taught.

    It doesn't take a wealth of knowledge to make every advancement, sometimes it just needs a fresh pair of eyes, but knowledge can often help. Ada, it sounds, definitely had that knowledge, which is consistent with what I have read about her.

    I think the only thing "exploded" is the myth that women can't be great programmers, which no one should believe anyway.