February 10, 2018 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Note F of Ada Lovelace - 1
(Please keep in mind that Ada is talking
here about the Jacquard look that actually uses punched cards as compared to
the analytical engine that remains un-invented till today – Story telling
Chimpanzee).
Just to remind you, tonight we are
proceeding with the Note F of Lady Lovelace where she takes on the vexing issue
of multiple punched cards required for mathematical operations.
“The power of repeating the cards, alluded
to by M. Menabrea, and more fully explained in Note C., reduces to an immense
extent the number of cards required.
It is obvious that this mechanical
improvement is especially applicable wherever cycles occur in the mathematical
operations, and that, in preparing data for calculations by the engine, it is
desirable to arrange the order and combination of the processes with a view to
obtain them as much as possible symmetrically and in cycles, in order that the
mechanical advantages of the backing system may be applied to the utmost.
It is here interesting to observe the
manner in which the value of an analytical resource is met and enhanced by an
ingenious mechanical contrivance.
We see in it an instance of one of those
mutual adjustments between the purely mathematical and the mechanical
departments, mentioned in Note A. as being a main and essential condition of
success in the invention of a calculating engine.
(We have not been through the Note A which
is the introductory Note of the total of seven notes that Ada labeled as Note A
through Note G.
Her notes are very comprehensive, very
detailed and highly mathematical that she wrote after intense correspondence
with Babbage sometimes on a daily basis.
Just to show you what was going on in her
mind, I shall quote few lines from her letters to Babbage that she wrote
between 1842 to July 1843.
“My Dear Babbage, I m in much dismay at
having got into so amazing a quagmire and botheration with these Numbers (she
is speaking about Bernoulli numbers which needs to be dealt in isolation as it
is a detailed topic of study), that I cannot possibly get the thing done
today…I am now going out on horseback. Tant mieux. (French: so much the
better).
I have worked incessantly and most
successfully all day.
You will admire the table and the diagram
extremely.
They have been made out with extreme care
and all the indices most minutely and scrupulously attended to.”)
We shall return back to the Note F of Ada.
“The nature of the resources afforded by
such adjustments would of two principle kinds.
In some cases, a difficulty (perhaps in
itself insurmountable) in the one department would be overcome by facilities in
the other; and sometimes (as in the present case) a strong point in the one
would be rendered still stronger and more available in combination with a
corresponding strong point in the other.”
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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