April 25, 2018 Wednesday
Bedtime story
Note B of Ada Lovelace - Part 5
Tonight we shall continue with the Note B
of Ada Lovelace wherein she is giving attention to the mill and using the word
“state” with reference to the mill which would later, after some 90 odd years
in 1936, was to be used by Alan Turing in his seminal paper which I hope to
cover some night in my bedtime stories.
Not only did both the computing giants used
the word “state”, but they used this word to describe the computing process of
a universal computing machine with an uncannily similar intent though of
course, as mathematics and computer science grew and developed, this term
gathered greater and greater complexity with immensely intricate mathematics backing
it.
She is also describing here different types
of punched cards that would enable the engine to carry out the entire chain of
commands for performing a mathematical operation.
“And here again is the illustration of the
remarks made in the preceding Note (Note A) on the independent manner in which
the engine directs its operations.
In determining the value of axn,
the operations are homogenous, but are distributed amongst different subjects
of operation, at successive stages of the computation.
It is by means of certain punched cards,
belonging to the Variables themselves, that the actions of the operations is so
distributed as to suit each particular function.
The Operation-cards merely determine the
succession of operations in a general manner.
They in fact throw all that portion of the
mechanism included in the mill into a series of different states, which we may
call the adding state, or the multiplying state etc., respectively.
In each of these states the mechanism is
ready to act in a way peculiar to that state, on any pair of numbers which may
be permitted to come within its sphere of action.
Only one of these operating states of the
mill can exist at a time; and the nature of the mechanism is also such that
only one pair of numbers can be received and acted on at a time.
Now, in order to secure that the mill shall
receive a constant supply of the proper pairs of numbers in succession, and
that it shall also rightly locate the result of an operation performed upon any
pair, each Variable has cards of its own belonging to it.
It has, first, a class of cards whose
business it is to allow the number on the Variable to pass into the mill, there
to be operated upon.
These cards may be called the
Supplying-cards.
They furnish the mill with its proper food.
Each variable has, secondly, another class
of cards, whose office it is to allow the Variable to receive a number from the
mill.
These cards may be called the
Receiving-cards.
They regulate the location of results,
whether temporary or ultimate results.
The Variable-cards in general (including
both the preceding classes) might, it appears to us, be even more appropriately
designated the Distributive-cards, since it is through their means that the
action of the operations, and the results of this action, are rightly
distributed.”
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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