Babbage pt1

Question 1

Who was considered to be the grandfather of the computer age and why?

Answer 1

Charles Babbage, His ideas were ahead of his time (he lived until 1871 but machines similar to his ideas were produced in the 1940’s )

Question 2

What are some details about the background life of Babbage (early years, time at Cambridge and after)?

Answer 2

Early:
- Intense curiosity about mechanical devices since childhood
- Tried to summon the devil to prove/disprove existence of god
Cambridge:
- Babbage had more knowledge than his tutors
- many clubs (chess club, ghost club, extractors)
After:
- well known member of the London Society
- Developed the first “environmental control” (an air conditioner for a home)
- when he was older, famous dislike of street musicians

Question 3

What was Babbage’s contribution to calculus and who were the co-contributors?

Answer 3

Added substantially to a text by LaCroix along with

• George Peacock
• John Herschel

Question 4

What was Babbage’s contribution to the production of logarithmic tables?

Answer 4

Improved accuracy of the tables and also tried to improve the interface of the tables by playing with colours of ink, paper colour and typefaces

Question 5

What was Babbage’s other contributions and inventions: British Rail system?

Answer 5

• Invented the cow catcher:
  It’s the pointed thing on the front of the train to deflect debris
• Aided in the recovery of lost rail cars by making a sail to help them when decoupled

Question 6

What was the motivator for Babbage to produce a calculating machine?

Answer 6

• human error kept being an issue when trying to make accurate math tables so he wanted to produce more accurate ones
• Intense obsession for completeness and accuracy

Question 7

How/when mathematical differences were used to generate results with the Difference Engine?

Answer 7

differences were used for all operations because multiplication and division were difficult to implement so they were re-written as being differences (repeated addition).

Question 8

What are some details about pre-Babbage Difference Engines and details in the development of the Babbage Difference Engine?

Answer 8

E koi-stein wrote about a reference to a difference machine in 1786
Mueller talked about a more ambitious device than koi-stein but could only be built with sufficient funds. He didn’t write about the device but he actually implemented it

Idea came to babbage in 1812-1813 during while he was thinking about logs
In the 1820’s he published logs tables that were good but he wanted to do better
by 1822 completed machine that could work up to 6 digits and evaluate any function having a constant second difference

Question 9

What were some of the challenges experienced by Babbage when producing his Difference Engine?

Answer 9

• Ran out of funding and had to reach out to the Royal Society to complete it
• Was difficult to actually implement so he got the help of Samuel Clement
• Health: wife, new born baby daughter and father passed away within 4 year span
• Babbage was trying to move and expected Clement to go with him but he didn’t so Clement got to keep the design and tools needed to make the machine
• New government in 1842 ruled against supporting him with anymore funds after he said he wanted to start over

Question 10

Who produced the Scheutz difference engine?

Answer 10

waeg

Question 11

How was the Scheutz difference engine developed?

Answer 11

waeg

Question 12

What was the eventual fate of the Scheutz difference engine?

Answer 12

wear

Question 13

What motivated the creation of the Scheutz difference engine (tabulating machine 2)?

Answer 13

waeg

Question 14

How was the Scheutz difference engine (tabulating machine 2) used?

Answer 14

wage

Question 15

What were the capabilities of the Decon Difference Engine?

Answer 15

weg

Question 16

What was the fate of the Decon Difference Engine?

Answer 16

wega

Question 17

What is the significance of the National/Comrie Difference Engine?

Answer 17

awes