Friday, September 11, 2009


The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer science that emerged in the twentieth century, and hinted at in the centuries prior. The progression, from mechanical inventions and mathematical theories towards the modern concepts and machines, formed a major academic field and the basis of a massive worldwide industry.

Algorithms
In the 7th century, Indian mathematician Brahmagupta gave the first explanation of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and the use of zero as both a placeholder and a decimal digit.

Birth of computer science
Before the 1920s, computers (sometimes computors) were human clerks that performed computations. They were usually under the lead of a physicist. Many thousands of computers were employed in commerce, government, and research establishments. Most of these computers were women, and they were known to have a degree in calculus. Some performed astronomical calculations for calendars.
After the 1920s, the expression computing machine referred to any machine that performed the work of a human computer, especially those in accordance with effective methods of the Church-Turing thesis. The thesis states that a mathematical method is effective if it could be set out as a list of instructions able to be followed by a human clerk with paper and pencil, for as long as necessary, and without ingenuity or insight.
Machines that computed with continuous values became known as the analog kind. They used machinery that represented continuous numeric quantities, like the angle of a shaft rotation or difference in electrical potential.
Digital machinery, in contrast to analog, were able to render a state of a numeric value and store each individual digit. Digital machinery used difference engines or relays before the invention of faster memory devices.
The phrase computing machine gradually gave away, after the late 1940s, to just computer as the onset of electronic digital machinery became common. These computers were able to perform the calculations that were performed by the previous human clerks.
Since the values stored by digital machines were not bound to physical properties like analog devices, a logical computer, based on digital equipment, was able to do anything that could be described "purely mechanical." Alan Turing, known as the Father of Computer Science, invented such a logical computer known as the Turing Machine, which later evolved into the modern computer. These new computers were also able to perform non-numeric computations, like music.
From the time when computational processes were performed by human clerks, the study of computability began a science by being able to make evident which was not explicit into ordinary sense more immediate.
See also: Numerical analysis, Philosophy of mathematics, and Philosophy of lan
The theoretical groundwork
The mathematical foundations of modern computer science began to be laid by Kurt Gödel with his incompleteness theorem (1931). In this theorem, he showed that there were limits to what could be proved and disproved within a formal system. This led to work by Gödel and others to define and describe these formal systems, including concepts such as mu-recursive functions and lambda-definable functions.
1936 was a key year for computer science. Alan Turing and Alonzo Church independently, and also together, introduced the formalization of an algorithm, with limits on what can be computed, and a "purely mechanical" model for computing.
These topics are covered by what is now called the Church–Turing thesis, a hypothesis about the nature of mechanical calculation devices, such as electronic computers. The thesis claims that any calculation that is possible can be performed by an algorithm running on a computer, provided that sufficient time and storage space are available.
Turing also included with the thesis a description of the Turing machine. A Turing machine has an infinitely long tape and a read/write head that can move

FATHER OF MATHEMATICS



There is no single Father of Mathematics.But if you want to be particular, many people opt for Euclid Here is a copy of a mathematician's essay on this topicEuclid of AlexandriaBorn: about 365 BC in Alexandria, EgyptDied: about 300 BCEuclid is the most prominent mathematician of antiquity; best known for his treatise on geometry, "The Elements". The long lastingnature of The Elements must make Euclid the leading mathematics teacher of all time.Little is known of Euclid's life except that he taught at Alexandria in Egypt.Euclid's most famous work is his treatise on geometry, "The Elements". The book was a compilation of geometrical knowledge that became the centre of mathematical teaching for 2000 years. Probably no results in The Elements were first proved by Euclid but the organisation of the material and its exposition are certainly credited to him.The Elements begins with definitions and axioms, including the famous fifth or parallel postulate that one and only one line can be drawn through a point parallel to a given line. Euclid's decision to make this an axiom led to Euclidean geometry. It was not until the 19th century that this axiom was dropped and non-euclidean geometries were studied.Zeno of Sidon, about 250 years after Euclid wrote The Elements, seems to have been the first to show that Euclid's propositions were not deduced from the axioms alone, and Euclid does make other subtle assumptions.The Elements is divided into 13 books: Books 1-6, plane geometry; books 7-9, number theory; book 10, Eudoxus's theory of irrational numbers; books 11-13, solid geometry. The book ends with a discussion of the properties of the five regular polyhedra and a proof that there are precisely five. Euclid's Elements is remarkable for the clarity with which the theorems are stated and proved. The standard of rigour was to become a goal for the inventors of calculus centuries later.More than one thousand editions of The Elements have been published since it was first printed in 1482.Euclid also wrote Data (with 94 propositions), On Divisions, Optics and Phaenomena which have survived. His other books, Surface Loci, Porisms, Conics, Book of Fallacies and Elements of Music, have all been lost.Euclid may not have been a first class mathematician but the long lasting nature .

FATHER OF BIOLOZY


It is hard to define the true father of biology, as I am confident humans have been inclined to study the world around them since they had the power to perceive and to think. However, the *academic* study of life is the most accurate meaning of "biology." "Bio" means "life," and "-ology" is "the study of," both taken from the Greek. This is an appropriate place to start, as the formal study of life is typically traced back to the Greek academy.Many consider Aristotle to be the Father of Biology. Aristotle was a great Greek philosopher of the third century BC. Alexander the great supported Aristotle’s work and sent Aristotle plant and animal samples from the entire Mediterranean region from the armies that were exploring and conquering. Aristotle founded the Lyceum School, where he orchestrated many exotic gardens and allowed his students the opportunity to observe and study in these gardens. From these gardens and from the myriad samples from abroad, Aristotle created records of observations that many consider the first rigorous study of life. But yet, Aristotle was greatly influenced by his father Nicomachus, who was a doctor. His father is believed to be have been physician to one of the Grecian rulers of the time, and these high social connections allowed Aristotle access to an excellent education and gave him time to ponder the world around him. This upbringing certainly shaped the future of this great scholar. If Nicomachus was the father of the father of biology, was he really the father of biology? Aristotle was also a student of Plato, with whom he studied philosophy and logic. At the Athens Academy, Plato studied for several years and began work on a comprehensive encyclopedia of knowledge. If not for the influence of Plato and the Academy, certainly Aristotle would not have been the scholar he became. So perhaps Plato should be considered the father of biology. Aristotle later tutored Alexander of Macedon, who became the ruler of the known world Alexander the Great. As already mentioned, it was Alexander the Great who sponsored Aristotle later in his life and supported his works both financially and with samples of flora of fauna, leading to the most comprehensive study of life forms at the time. The great encyclopedia of knowledge created by Aristotle changed the course of academics around the world. Though many others influenced the work of Aristotle it was he who put together this collection .

FATHER OF CHEMISTRY


Robert Boyle (1627-1691), ‘The Father of Chemistry’, was the most influential scientist ever born in Ireland. His influence on chemistry has been likened to that of Copernicus (1473-1543) on cosmology, who proposed that the sun and not the earth lies at the centre of the solar system. Apart from chemistry Boyle made many other contributions to science.

Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, Co. Waterford, the youngest son of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, and his second wife Katherine Fenton. Richard accumulated a great fortune in Ireland and enjoyed a high social standing. Robert displayed a quiet scholarly disposition and was his father’s favourite son.

After early education at home, Robert was sent for a while to Eton College in England. Then at the age of 11 he was sent, with a tutor, on a grand tour of Europe which lasted for 6 years. Apart from conventional studies on the tour, Robert was also exposed to some vulgar ways of the world. For example, he attracted the amorous attentions of a couple of Friars, but he staunchly resisted the ‘preposterous courtship’ of those ‘gowned sodomites’.
During his tour of Europe, the young Boyle experienced an awesome thunderstorm which had the effect of a religious conversion experience. Boyle thought he was going to die and felt very ill-prepared to meet his Maker. Surviving the storm, he resolved to keep his spiritual side well serviced so that he would not be caught unawares again.
Boyle returned to Dorset in England in 1644 and embarked on a writing career, largely of pious and moralistic material in the beginning. In 1649 he set up a scientific laboratory, and he began to write accounts of his scientific work, promulgating the use of experiment and the scientific method.

In 1655 Boyle moved to Oxford where he joined a group of natural philosophers that foreshadowed the Royal Society, founded in 1660. Robert Hooke (1635-1703) entered Boyle’s employ at this time and helped him in his experiments. They built the air-pump used to create vacuums and with which Boyle carried out many trials to elucidate the nature and importance of air.
Boyle demonstrated the necessity of air for combustion, for animal breathing, and for the transmission of sound. Prior to moving from Oxford to London in 1688, he published much influential work, including New Experiments Physio-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects (1660) and The Sceptical Chymist (1661). In The Spring of The
Right: Robert Boyle

Air he described the inverse relationship between the volume of a gas and its pressure – now known as Boyle’s Law.
Medieval science was dominated by the ideas of Aristotle (384-322 BC). Aristotle proposed that matter was composed of 4 elements – earth, air, fire, and water - which in varying proportions constituted all things. Paracelsus (1493-1531), an adept in alchemy, proposed that various combinations of three controlling elements (mercury, sulphur, salt) accounted for the various properties of matter.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

FATHER OF PHYSICS


It is because the inventions or the theories formulated by Isaac Newton is more of real life things which could be more or less be seen and is of common sense. The physics of this real objects is known as classical mechanics. Mostly classical mechanics is enriched with Newtonian laws , Hamiltonians and Lagrangian approach. In 1905 three papers were published by Einstein which led to a hell of new discoveries and the discoveries and theories followed is under the branch of modern Physics. It was something new and which people could not digest much (Relativity for e
Newton was the inventer of the calculus (Leibnitz also invented it independently) and it is an essential mathematical tool in all the sciences, including Einstein's relativity.