Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace

Her Family

Born 10 December 1815
Father was Lord Byron, a famous poet
Parents divorced as a baby
Mother was bitter
She wanted to protect Ada from her father’s “bad genes”

Her Life

Mother pushed logic, rational thought and mathematics
Ada decided to combine math and art
She called it “poetical science”
She died of cancer at age 35

Difference Engine

Friends with Charles Babbage
Built a prototype of a “Difference Engine”
Never actually built until 1991
Had plans to build an “Analytical Engine”
Essentially a mechanical computer

First Programmer

Realized that number is a symbol
Numbers can be changed based on rules
Symbols could also be changed by rules

Father + Mother = Child

Symbols

What does this mean?

1010100100010100011010010000000100001010

Split in Groups of 8

1010100100010100011010010000000100001010

10101001
00010100
01101001
00000001
00001010

Convert to Decimal Numbers

10101001 = 169
00010100 = 20
01101001 = 105
00000001 = 1
00001010 = 10

Numbers aren’t always Numbers

What if computer had some commands
Each command was numbered
Then any number could be either:
- An actual number, or
- A command

First Command

Assume first number is a command
Then 169 is command to “Load”

Load a Number

“Load” says next number is a number
Loads 20 into the processor

Next Command

Next number must be a command
105 is the command to “Add”

Add a Number

Commands says next number is a number
Adds 1 to the loaded number
Now 21 is the loaded number

Multiply by Two

Next number must be a command
Called “multiply by 2”
Multiplies 21 by 2 leaving 42

This is how a Computer Works

This is how computers work.
Our fancy instructions are just “abstractions”