Introduction to Computing: The History of Computing

Flashcards covering the history of computing, including early civilizations, mathematical milestones, and notable figures from Leibniz to Gladys Mae West.

Computing

Any activity that utilizes computers to manage, process, and communicate critical information that is an integral part of modern industrial technology.

Babylonians

A civilization from about $2000$ BC until $500$ BC that used clay cuneiform tables for mathematical operations and a numerical system based on symbols for $1$ and $10$.

Counting board

A wooden tool with grooves for beads used by early civilizations for simple calculations, believed to have preceded the abacus.

Abacus

A calculating tool where beads with holes are placed on specific rods; it was notably used by Romans to perform calculations due to the difficulty of their numeral system.

Rhind Papyrus

A famous Egyptian writing surface containing examples of arithmetic and geometric problems, used to train students for the Pharaoh’s building program.

Pythagoreans

A secret society of men and women who believed in the transmigration of souls and that "number was the essence of all things."

Thales' theorem

A principle in Euclidean geometry stating that if $A$, $B$, and $C$ are points on a circle where the line $AC$ is the diameter, then the angle $\angle ABC$ is a right angle.

Islamic Influence

A period where mathematicians developed a theory using rational and irrational numbers as algebraic objects, moving mathematics beyond the Greek focus on Geometry.

Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz

A German philosopher and mathematician who developed the binary number system and designed the first calculator to perform all four basic arithmetic operations.

The Step Reckoner

A calculating machine created between $1672$ and $1964$ capable of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and the extraction of roots.

Charles Babbage

Known as one of the grandfathers of computing, he designed the Difference Engine in $1821$ to produce accurate mathematical tables without human error.

Difference Engine

A device designed to precisely compute polynomial functions as well as logarithmic and trigonometric functions such as sine or cosine.

Ada Lovelace

An analyst for the analytical engine who is considered by many to be the first computer programmer.

George Boole

A grandfather of computing who developed Boolean algebra and symbolic logic, which became the mathematical model for switching theory and digital circuit design.

Boolean Logic Symbols

The quantity $1$ symbolizes the universe of thinkable objects, while $0$ symbolizes the absence of any things.

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper

A computer pioneer and naval officer best known for her involvement in developing COBOL in $1959$.

COBOL

Common Business-oriented Language; a standardized language for business purposes that became the most extensively used computer language by the $1970s$.

Katherine Johnson

Known as a human computer at NASA, she studied geometry to calculate the paths for spacecraft to orbit Earth and land on the moon.

Gladys Mae West

A mathematician who created a detailed geodetic model of the Earth, which served as the foundation for the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the $1960s$.