Boole,+George

Biography:
George Boole was born in Lincoln, England on November 2nd 1815. He was the son of John Boole, who was a shoemaker but had a passion for math. John had been interested in optical instruments and when George was young he would help or look on with his father. George became interested in math because of his father. George went to a primary school called National Society, but it was the last school he went to. Then he educated himself from there on. He taught himself Latin, Greek, French, and German. His father took care of the mathematical part. At age 15 he started to teach at a primary school, for four years, and soon after he started setting up his own school in Lincoln. His favorite subject was the classical math until he reached the age of seventeen; he started becoming interested in the more advanced math (he taught himself). In 1834 the Mechanics Institution was founded. His first scientific publication was in 1835 and it was about Newton's Principle. In 1849 he became a professor (teaching math) at the Queen's College in Cork, Ireland. After he died the library at Queen's College was named after him, in his honor. He got married in 1855, to Mary Everest, who was the niece of Sir George Everest (mountain was named after). Together they had five daughters. They were Mary, Margaret, Alicia, Lucy, and Ethel. Mary married a mathematician, Charles Howard Hilton. Margaret's son, Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, became a mathematician. Alicia made important contributions to the four dimensional geometry math world. Lucy became a chemist. Last but not least, Ethel married a scientist named Wilfrid Michael Voynich. George died on December 8th, 1864, at the age of 49. He died of a high fever which was caused from Pneumonia. After he died in his honor the people of Lincoln had a stained-glass window put in the Cathedral.

Contribution to the World of Mathematics:
George Boole was a self taught mathematician, without a college degree, but he managed to create the Boolean algebra. The math that George created had to do with unions, sets, probability, and statistics. Now, his work has helped with computer design, database searching, topology, and measure theory. It was all developed from symbolic logic (Boolean algebra). He has written a couple of books on his thoughts and theories, one of which is //The Laws of Thought.// It was written on the year 1854. The book was about the study of logic. Another one of his books was //An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities,// which was also published in 1854. Around the time before he died he was working on calculus, and again he published another book, but this time it was about calculus. The book is a classic when it comes to the subject of calculus. He didn't really receive much recognition for his work until after he died. Boole did have over fifty articles put into magazines and a few separate publications. It is often said that he was born in the wrong time period because computers weren't invented in his lifetime and that he would have been a huge help to the industry.

Bibliography:

Gale, Thomas. __Encyclopedia of World Biography on George Boole__. Book Rags. 2/26/08 

__George Boole__.Answer.com. 2/26/08 

Gillispie, Charles. "George Boole." __Dictionary of Scientific Biography Volume 1__. 1981 ed.

Wikipedia, __George Boole__. Book Rags. 2/26/08. 

Wall, Tom. __Boole, George__. Book Rags. 2/27/08. 

Picture:

http://guerreroerrante.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/Boole2_lg.jpg