31.12.2018
Order of the day
Repetitio :: Between Antiquity and Rennaissance
Narratio :: Wheat and chessboard legend
Questio :: What is an algorithm ?
Lectio :: Between renaissance and Age of R...
31.12.1255
Wheat and chessboard legend
"Oh emperor, my wishes are simple. I only wish for this. Give me one grain of rice for the first square of the chessboard, two grains for the next square, four for the next, ...
31.12.2018
Mariam-Webster dict. definition of an "algorithm"
a procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation
a step-by-step procedure for solving a prob...
31.12.1636
Rene Descartes (c. 1596 - 1650 A.D.)
polymath
at 23-years of age, his dreams pose him in front of a question: Quod vitae sectabor iter?
establishement of scientific method (based on "doubitatio")
...
31.12.1636
Mechanism
"I should like you to consider that these functions (including passion, memory, and imagination) follow from the mere arrangement of the machine’s organs every bit as natural...
31.12.1636
Cartesian coordinate system...
...makes computer graphics possible...and much, much more...
31.12.1641
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)
polymath
in 19years of age started to build first mechanical calculators ("Pascalines")
ground-breaking works in mathematics (Pascal's triangle), geometry (Pasca...
31.12.2018
Pascaline (mechanical calculator)
30.12.1672
Gottfried W. Leibniz (c. 1646 c. 1716)
one of the last big polymaths
advanced disciplines of philosophy (monadology, theodicea, why is there something rather than nothing?), mathematics (probability theory,...
30.12.1672
Stepped reckoner
"... it is beneath the dignity of excellent men to waste their time in calculation when any peasant could do the work just as accurately with the aid of a machine." (G.W.L, 1...
30.12.1672
Leibniz wheel
31.12.2018
Binary digits
Please read :: http://bildung.digital.udk-berlin.de/prolegomena/handouts/Leibniz.pdf
from letter of Leibniz to Duke of Braunschweig (1697)
31.12.2018