Babbage,+Charles

Biography
Charles Babbage was known as “The Grandfather of the Modern Computer” and “Father of Computing”. He was an English Mathematicians born in London December 26, 1791. He was born to Betsy Plumleigh Babbage and Benjamin Babbage. Babbage’s father was a banker so his family was quite wealthy. This allowed Babbage to get help from private tutors, and go to high class schools. Babbage attended Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Two years later her transferred to Peterhouse in Cambridge. Even though his father never gave Charles his approval Charles Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore on July 25th 1814. They were married at the St. Michael’s Church in Teignmouth, Devon. Together they had eight children; Benjamin,Charles, Georgiana, Edward, Francis, Dugald, Henry, Alexander, Timothy. 1827, was a horrible year for Babbage. It was the year that father, wife, and son all died. Despite his terrible loss Babbage continued to work on his Difference Engine. Babbage worked on both his Difference Engine, and Analytical Engine for a large portion of his life, yet, he wasn’t able to finish either of them. Charles Babbage died October 18, 1871. He had never actually created any of his mathematical machines, but he did manage to record very complete notes, which later were used by George and Edward Scheutz to create a scale model of the Difference Engine.

Contributions to Mathematical World
Charles Babbage was the creator of the first programmable computer. He wanted to create a way to so that he could eliminate the human error in mathematical tables. His first idea was The Difference Engine. The Difference Engine is like a calculator that had to be mechanically operated. Its purpose was to calculate polynomial functions that couldn’t be answered very accurately before. The Difference Engine was never created, Babbage did, however, write very precise notes and diagrams about his machine, which were later used to create actually build The Difference Engine. The Analytical Engine, which can be considered the world’s first computer was also never finished, but its blueprints were also recorded by Babbage. Charles Babbage created The Analytical Engine because he wanted to create a machine that could do any calculation. The Analytical Engine was operated by punched cards, this would be how to program the computer. The first program for the engine was created by Augusta Ada Lovelace. The Analytical Engine contained two main parts; they were the mill, and the store. The mill was like a modern day computer’s processor, and the store was like its memory. Charles Babbage contributed to the mathematical world because he was the first to begin work on ideas which later were evolved into the modern day computer.