December 13, 2017 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Funds Terminated for Babbage
Note that the subsequent values of f(x) can
be achieved sequentially simply by adding the numbers in the column of the
first difference to the previous value of the function f(x).
The model that was stationed at the
computer science museum in Mountain View requires four revolutions of crank for
one iteration.
One iteration is one full set of addition
and carry operations.
It is the carrying part that proved to be
the greatest challenge in its physical construction during the Victorian era of
primitive engineering.
When this behemoth of the machine moves,
the vertical columns resemble a spiraling double helix of DNA – an accidental
but fitting connection of digital technology with biology.
It is not very easy to understand the
working of this machine merely by my verbal description and I would definitely
recommend you watching videos on YouTube to grasp both the complexity and
beauty of this machine.
Even if you do not take pains to understand
the intricacies of its working, merely the technical prowess that went in the
construction of the difference engine is obviously visible and is a tribute to
the fabulous mind of Charles Babbage.
As told earlier, the plan to construct this
difference engine fell through both because of financial and egoistic fall out
between two great masters.
This did not bother Babbage much as he
tried to perfect his older design even further and gave the new design the name
tag “Difference Engine No. 2”.
Sadly, the British Crown by then had lost
faith in him and no more grants came to him after his initial failure.
Babbage was a stupendously think skinned
personality who was easily offended by people who would criticize him or were
not smart enough to understand his ideas.
In general, any one holding the chair of
the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, England could
be expected to be a misanthrope of a high order; Newton certainly was.
Babbage would not shy from writing nasty
letters to the highest of authorities creating if not enemies, at least losing
away all potential donations from them if there was chance at that.
But that was Babbage, forthright and blunt.
It is said that if he existed today, he
would get himself banned or delisted from all social networking groups such as
facebook, twitter and other such sundry places.
Remarkably enough the failure and lack of further
support from the Crown did not disappoint him and his mind continued to race on.
Babbage contemplated an even more ambitious
project.
How this man got so much motivation to
innovate and invent is hard to fathom since it is obvious that the society of
that time could not grasp the potential of a grotesquely expensive machine that
would solve polynomials very cumbersomely.
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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