There were many things that Lovelace and Babbage could have done with the Analytical Engine, but the one that got
Ada the title of “first computer programmer” was what she wrote about Bernoulli numbers.
Bernoulli numbers are a sequence of numbers that occur in many places in mathematics, and have been deemed to be
important enough to have a name. They appear in number theory, in calculus--specifically in the expansions of
several Taylor series--and in Pascal’s triangle.
Check out this page that explains more about Bernoulli numbers! It includes an applet that calculates Bernoulli
numbers just as Ada planned to with the algorithm that she wrote for the Analytical Engine.
Bernoulli Number Generator
Now that Lovelace and Babbage created the idea for the computer, there is so much that can be done! Even the very
fact that you are reading this on a screen right now is possible because of the hard work and imagination put in to
making something so seemingly unobtainable.
Many of us have a very basic idea of how computers work. One of the first things that I learned about computers was
that they use base 2 instead of the base 10 number system that we have grown up with! Try out this applet that allows
you to play around with binary numbers and get a little feel for what's going on in a computer's brain.
Base Conversion
After we've discussed so many famous mathematicians, you've almost certainly been asking yourself, "After what crazy
mathematician were these fancy Bernoulli Numbers named?" Here... You can find out more! Not only about the Bernoulli numbers
that we have discussed, but about more of the amazing things that the Bernoulli family has contributed to our world!
Background on the Bernoullis
And while Taylor series expansions and number theory might not seem very applicable to our lives, the work behind all of this
definitely IS applicable. All of the work that Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, and countless other mathematicians and programmers
put in has given us fabulous technology! It has changed the world, and the world around us continues to change as more
brilliant minds think of more improvements that can be made to our lives through technology.