Rear Admiral Hopper was born on December 9, 1906 around midnight in New York, New York. She gave many contributions to computer programming, software development, and the design and implementation of programming languages including the invention of an English-language computer language called COBOL, the largest and most robust back end language ever implemented.
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A long time ago I read Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter and since then became a fan of this sensitive and gifted mathematician. I highly recommend the book and since we are closing down, I figured I get a few of my favorites in before then. Kurt Friedrich Gödel (in English the umlaut becomes oe) was born April 28, 1906 in Brno Czech Republic to a Rudolf August Godel a businessman and Roman Catholic and a Protestant mother Marianne a well-educated woman but both ethnic Germans. Raised Protestant he was himself was a theistic Christian…
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Donald Ervin Knuth was born on January 10, 1938 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father father ran a small printing press that also produced programs for the local Lutheran church. From this we can see that his father (Sun at 19 Capricorn 28) was a major influence in his professional life not only encouraging Professor Knuth in his s TeX and Metafont, digital typesetting programs, but his great Christian faith and love of the the organ. While his two programs, still maintained, had niche appeal, it was his authorship of the Art of Computer Programming that is considered by most his…
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Alan Turing was born on June 23 1912 at 5:10 pm in London England. He was the son of a civil servant, and at educated a public school in England where his his genius in mathematics was apparent. Enter the machine
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Our header picture of E. T. Bell is from the Constance Reid biography on him, taken when he was a freshman at Stanford, then a free college. Bell was born February 7, 1883, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and died December 21, 1960, Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, California. He emigrated to the United States in 1902 at the age of 19 and immediately enrolled at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California where after two years he earned his bachelor’s degree. Then there is a 4 year repast before he received he went to the University of Washington in 1908, even his biographer does…
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Jerome Cardano’s astrological reckoning was the date I used to backtrack Marc Jones Martin Luther King scope, and I have been a fan ever since. Since we seem to hitting a lot of mathematicians this week, I thought I would add his for Cardano wrote Ars magna (The Great Art; or, The Rules of Algebra) a cornerstone in the history of algebra cementing his reputation as a great mathematician and then turned his hand to astrology (astronomy in his day). His biograph is here. Pluto not discovered for another 400 years, tells the tale for Signore Cardano, who prophesized his own…
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René Descartes was a philosopher whose work, La Géométrie, proves Pythagorean mathematics. He posits, and this becomes the basis for scientific thought, that without proof, it’s all theory. Le Monde, ou Traité de la Lumière The proof of Geometry lies in algebra Nature is filled with vacuums Descartes Chart Descartes the Early Years. School Days at Le Fleche Life in Holland Vortex theory vs. Gravity How do you know you’re not in the Matrix? Exalting in Practicality The Scepticism of Action Footnotes:
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Fibonacci Day is November 23rd, and celebrates the work of medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa. We have no solid dates on Leonardo, but 11-23 was chosen as those are the first numbers in the sequence. In honour of the day, Science Magazine published an article on an American mathematician who utilized the Fibonacci series to solve German mathematician David Hilbert’s 10th problem of his original list of twenty-three. Her name was Julia Robinson. Who is Fibonacci and why do we care? Leonardo Fibonacci, slang for Filius Bonacci, son of Bonacci, was a medieval Italian mathematician who wrote Liber abaci “Book…
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Jean Baptiste Morin writes that he was born during the daytime i.e. 8:33 in the morning, and the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Saturn are all in the 12th house. He used the Whole Sign house system so they are “all” square to Mars in the third. The parental effect The Moon is the significator of my parents because it is the ruler of the 4th House, he is Aries rising, and in particular the Moon represents my mother because both are feminine. The Moon also is in the feminine sign of Pisces — 02 Pisces while the Sun by…
