Who wrote the first computer program

Illustration from SSPL / Getty When Ada Lovelace was twelve years old, she wanted to fly. She approached the problem methodically, examining birds and investigating various materials that could serve as wings—feathers, paper, silk. In the course of her research, which began in February, 1828, according to her biographer Betty Alexandra Toole, Ada wrote and illustrated a guide called “Flyology,” to record her findings. She toiled away on this project until her mother reprimanded her for neglecting her studies, which were meant to set her on a rational course, not a fanciful one. Ada’s mother, Annabella Byron, was the straight-laced counterpoint to her father, Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, who called his wife the “Princess of Parallelograms.” A month after Ada’s birth, Annabella Byron moved their daughter out of their London house, and away from Lord Byron’s influence. When, shortly before his death, he wrote asking about Ada’s upbringing, Annabella had this to report: “Not devoid of imagination, but is chiefly exercised in connection with her mechanical ingenuity.” This was the best she could hope for, having drilled into Ada a discipline for arithmetic, music, and French, according to the biography “ But Lovelace reconciled the competing poles of her parents’ influence. On January 5, 1841, she asked, “What is Imagination?” Two things, she thought. First, “the combining faculty,” which “seizes points in common, between subjects having no apparent connection,” and then, she...

Why subscribe? • The ultimate action-packed science and technology magazine bursting with exciting information about the universe • Subscribe today and save an extra 5% with checkout code 'LOVE5' • Engaging articles, amazing illustrations & exclusive interviews • Issues delivered straight to your door or device On Monday (July 23), Lovelace's scientific reputation got a boost when a rare first edition of one of her pioneering technical works — featuring an equation considered by some to be the world's first computer algorithm — In the rare book, titled "Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage, Esq"(Richard & John Taylor, 1843), Lovelace translated a paper by Italian mathematician (and later Italian Prime Minister) Luigi Menabrea that describes an automatic calculating machine (aka, a computer) proposed by English engineer Charles Babbage. "She's written a program to calculate some rather complicated numbers — Bernoulli numbers," Ursula Martin, anAda Lovelacebiographer and professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, According to auction house Moore Allen & Innocent, the "extremely rare" book is one of six first editions known to exist. Auctioneer Philip Allwood In the auctioned copy, "Lady Lovelace" is inscribed below a line on the title page reading "with notes by the translator." (This inscription, among other handwritten notes scribbled throughout the document, are believed to have been written by Lovelace's friend Dr. William King, who...

Today, almost everyone we know can use a computer, which can perform mind-blowing calculations in the blink of an eye thanks to computer programmers. And as you start your new career in programming and development, you might be wondering about the history of it all. If doctors can look to Hippocrates and engineers to Archimedes, who do computer programmers turn to as the one who started it all? It can be a tricky question, especially since it’s not always clear what exactly programming is and what counts as a computer. So, what’s technically considered a computer? In the most general sense, a computer is any machine that can automatically carry out a mathematical or logical operation based on a given input. Today, it’s all too easy to limit our thinking to electronic computers, which were invented and developed within the last 100 years. But centuries before electronic computers, people all over the industrialized world were using mechanical computers, which used levers and gears to perform simple addition for shopkeepers and accountants as well as complex mathematical operations. And what exactly is programming? People still argue about the Ada Lovelace: the first computer programmer By these commonly held definitions of computers and programming, Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) is known as the world’s first computer programmer. Lovelace combined the power of a general-purpose computer with a specific programming language to perform a computational task that wasn’t “built-in” in...

Ada Lovelace, a Mathematician Who Wrote the First Computer Program A century before the dawn of the computer age, Ada Lovelace imagined the modern-day, general-purpose computer. It could be programmed to follow instructions, she wrote in 1843. It could not just calculate but also create, as it “weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” Posted 1:34 a.m.Mar 9, 2018— Updated 1:34 a.m.Mar 9, 2018 A century before the dawn of the computer age, Ada Lovelace imagined the modern-day, general-purpose computer. It could be programmed to follow instructions, she wrote in 1843. It could not just calculate but also create, as it “weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” The computer she was writing about, British inventor Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, was never built. But her writings about computing have earned Lovelace — who died of uterine cancer in 1852 at age 36 — recognition as the first computer programmer. The program she wrote for the Analytical Engine was to calculate the seventh Bernoulli number. But her deeper influence was to see the potential of computing. The machines could go beyond calculating numbers, she said, to understand symbols and be used to create music or art. “This insight would become the core concept of the digital age,” Walter Isaacson wrote in his book, “The Innovators.” “Any piece of content, data or information — music, text, pictures, numbers, symbols, sounds, video — c...

The First Digital Programmable Computer Do you know who invented the first Charles Babbage is considered to be “father of the computer”. Level A2/B1 The First Computer Sir Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher, mechanical engineer and computer scientist. He was the first person to invent the idea of a computer that could be programmed. Unfinished parts of his mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. His Brain is also on display at the Science Museum in London. Babbage worked and wrote on many ideas of science, engineering and mathematics, but he is most famous for two machines he started and never finished. His Difference Engine would have been a much better calculator than any made before then. His Analytical Engine would have been the first real computer. Babbage’s engines were among the first mechanical computers. His engines were not actually completed because he did not have enough money. Babbage realized that a machine could do the work better and more reliably than a human being. Babbage controlled building of some steam-powered machines that more or less did their job; calculations could be mechanized to an extent. Although Babbage’s machines were large machines they were organized in a way similar to modern computer architecture. The data and program memory were separated, operation was instruction based, control unit could make conditional jumps and the machine had a separate I/O u...