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  George Boole

 


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George Boole

Boolean algebra is named for its inventor, English mathematicia George Boole. Boole was born in 1815. His father, a tradesrnai began teaching him mathematics at an early age. But Boole initiall was more interested in classical literature, languages, and religion interests he maintained throughout his life. By the time he was 20 he had taught himself French, German, and Italian. He was we versed in the writings of Aristotle, Spinoza, Cicero, and Dante, an he wrote several philosophical papers himself.
At 16, to help support his family, Boole took a position as II teaching assistant in a private school. His work there and a second teaching job left him little time to study. A few years later, he opene a school and began to learn higher mathematics on his own. In spite of his lack of formal training, his first scholarly paper was publishe( in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal when he was just 24. Boole went on to pub lish over 50 papers and several major works before he died in 1864, at the peak o his career.
Boole's The Mathematical Analysis of Logic was published in 1847. It would even tually form the basis for the development of digital computers. In the book, Boole se forth the formal axioms of logic (much like the axioms of geometry) on which th( field of symbolic logic is built.
Boole drew on the symbols and operations of algebra in creating his system o' logic.
He associated the value I with the universal set (the set representing everything in the
universe) and the value 0 with the empty set, and restricted his system to these two quantities. He then defined operations that are analogous to subtraction, addition, and multiplication. Variables in the system have symbolic values. For example, if a Boolean variable P represents the set of all plants, then the expression I - P refers to the set of all things that are not plants. We can simplify the expression, using —P to mean "not plants." (0—Pis simply 0 because we can't remove elements from the empty set.) The subtraction operator in Boole's system corresponds to the NOT operator in Pascal. In a Pascal program, we might set the value of the Boolean variable Plant to True when the name of a plant is entered, and NOT Plant is True when the name of anything else is input.
The expression 0+P is the same as P. However, 0 +P + F, where F is the set of all foods, is the set of all things that are either plants or foods. So the addition operator in Boole's algebra is the same as the Pascal OR operator.
The analogy can be carried to multiplicatioq: 0 X P is 0, and I X Pis P. But what is P X F? It is the set of things that are both plants and foods. In Boole's system, the multiplication operator is the same as the AND operator.
In 1854, Boole published An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities. In the book he described theorems built on his axioms of logic and extended the algebra to show how probabilities could be computed in a logical system. Five years later, Boole published Treatise on Differential Equations, then Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences. The latter is one of the cornerstones of numerical analysis, which deals with the accuracy of computations. (In Chapter 8, you'll see the important role numerical analysis plays in computer programming.)
Boole received little recognition and few honors for his work. Given the importance of Boolean algebra in modern technology, it is hard to believe that his system of logic was not taken seriously until the early twentieth century. George Boole was truly one of the founders of  computer science.