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Untangling the Tale of Ada Lovelace

December 20, 2015 by Emerson Banez

 

From Stephen Wolfram's Blog (yes, the Mathematica/Wolfram Alpha guy):

It’s charming to read Ada’s letter as she works on debugging her computation of Bernoulli numbers: “My Dear Babbage. I am in much dismay at having got into so amazing a quagmire & botheration with these Numbers, that I cannot possibly get the thing done today. …. I am now going out on horseback. Tant mieux.” Later she told Babbage: “I have worked incessantly, & most successfully, all day. You will admire the Table & Diagram extremely. They have been made out with extreme care, & all the indices most minutely & scrupulously attended to.” Then she added that William (or “Lord L.” as she referred to him) “is at this moment kindly inking it all over for me. I had to do it in pencil…”

More than an interesting peek at the life of Computer Science's historical figures, it's a testament to the nobility of all mathematics (not just "business" or "practical" mathematics). 

December 20, 2015 /Emerson Banez /Source
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