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| The Mathematical Work of Charles Babbage | Buy a book...
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| Author(s): | J. M. Dubbey |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| ISBN: | 0521524768 |
| Format: | softback |
| 235pp | |
| Price: | £20.00 |
| Review Date: | 16 February 2004 |
| Review: | This is book is primarily a critique of Babbage’s mathematical methods and output. It begins by explaining his mathematical background, looking at his time studying mathematics at Cambridge. There, with a couple of friends, he formed the Analytical Society, for the cultivation of mathematics. The work of this society had an invigorating effect on a flagging British mathematics. Babbage’s major mathematical work was in the calculus of functions, which is studied in detail in this book. His unpublished book, The Philosophy of Analysis contains views on algebra that were far advanced of the time. Babbage attached a great deal of importance to notation and devised a set of rules that all mathematical notations were to follow, even constructing a kind of notational calculus. Finally, the author describes Babbage’s work on computers, which covered almost 50 years and looks back on his achievements, assessing the influence and importance of Babbage’s work in the context of the present day. |