Introduction to Computing: The History of Computing

Flashcards covering the history of computing, from early civilizations and their numerical systems to notable figures and their inventions.

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 in Mesopotamia ($2000$ BC to $500$ BC) that used clay cuneiform tables containing mathematical texts for operations like arithmetic, cubes, and square roots.

Counting boards

Wood boards with grooves for beads used by the Babylonians for counting and simple calculations, preceding the abacus.

Egyptian Numerical System

A base $10$ number system that used distinct symbols for one, ten, a hundred, a thousand, a ten thousand, and a hundred thousand.

Rhind Papyrus

A famous Egyptian writing surface containing examples of arithmetic and geometric problems used for student training.

Pythagoras

A Greek philosopher and mathematician which established a secret society called the Pythagoreans that believed 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 $<ABC$ is a right angle.

Roman numerals

A number system using letters ($I = 1$, $V = 5$, $X = 10$, $L = 50$, $C = 100$, $D = 500$, $M = 1000$) to symbolize numbers in a sequence.

Islamic mathematical theory

A comprehensive theory that used rational and irrational numbers as algebraic objects, moving beyond simple Geometry to study curves using equations.

Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz

A German pioneer who developed the binary number system and designed the Step Reckoner calculating machine.

The Step Reckoner

Created between $1672-1694$, it was the first calculator to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and the extraction of roots.

Charles Babbage

A grandfather of computing who designed the Difference Engine in $1821$ to produce accurate mathematical tables without human error.

Difference Engine

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

Ada Lovelace

An analyst who worked for Babbage's analytical engine and 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 digital circuit design.

Boolean Logic Quantities

Boole used the quantity $1$ to symbolize the universe of thinkable objects and $0$ to symbolize the absence of any things.

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper

A computer pioneer and naval officer who was trailblazing in the development and adoption of the COBOL language.

COBOL

Acronym for Common Business-oriented Language, developed in $1959$ and considered the most extensively used computer language by the $1970s$.

Katherine Johnson

A NASA human computer whose geometry calculations for spacecraft paths allowed astronauts to orbit Earth and land on the moon.

Gladys Mae West

A mathematician whose geodetic model of the Earth and programming of computer precision for satellite geodesy became the basis for GPS development.