December 01, 2017 Friday
Bedtime Story
Babbage, Church and Turing
Babbage died in 1871 while Turing was born
on 1912 and Church in 1903.
While Babbage was separated from them
temporally, Turing and Church were separated from each other geographically and
it was already a time, when geography did not pose a serious challenge for two
individuals to meet.
Lay public often relate to these men, in
particular to Charles Babbage, as men who had something to do with the computers.
That is not completely wrong in one way though
what perhaps many may not know that all these three men are fundamentally
mathematicians.
Babbage fell in love with mathematics when
he was in school.
I consider any school child to fall in love
with mathematics as a sign of extraordinary gift; almost no average child or
even brilliant children are in general prone to falling in love with numbers or
mathematics.
Babbage like most great mathematicians
taught himself mathematics and he did it so remarkably well that when in 1810
he stepped into Trinity College, Cambridge he was deeply disappointed with the
standard of mathematics at the university.
Life of Babbage in a way is similar to
Darwin in the sense that for a long time Babbage depended on the support from
his father and even ending up getting married very early at his behest.
He truly was an obedient son or perhaps he
had little choice to be a contrarian.
After the death of his father when he was
36, Babbage inherited substantial estate that would provide him for his entire
life and more.
It is often said that inheritance of colossal
wealth often spoils the child.
Fortunately that did not happen in case of
Babbage; on the contrary this great wealth allowed him to pursue his
mathematical and scientific interests with far greater freedom.
He lost his wife very early after the
demise of his father which perhaps further reduced his distractions and allowed
him with ever more autonomy to pursue what he desired and travel as he wished
to.
Babbage held the prestigious position of
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for straight
nine years from 1828 to 1839 in spite not being very much interested in
teaching per se.
He not only was less interested in teaching
but also wanted to change the way education was imparted at the University.
He wanted education to be more liberal,
more inclusive with broader syllabus and more time spent on research and application.
This very strange mathematician even got
interested in politics and twice stood for the parliament as a candidate from
the borough of Finsbury narrowly losing both the times.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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