Boole, George - Research Article from Macmillan Science Library: Mathematics

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 3 pages of information about Boole, George.

Boole, George - Research Article from Macmillan Science Library: Mathematics

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 3 pages of information about Boole, George.
This section contains 739 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Boole, George Encyclopedia Article

British Mathematician 1815–1864

Digital logic is the set of rules applied to data (numbers, symbols, words) that are entered into a computer. These instructions direct computers and are called machine code. This code uses the binary digits 1 and 0 to switch transistors on or off. The basic operators that perform these tasks are AND, OR, and NOT. A hundred years before electronic computers were conceived, George Boole proposed this binary or digital logic.

Born to working-class English parents, Boole later supported himself and his parents as a school instructor. Frustrated by the inferior mathematics texts used to educate pupils, Boole was led to change the world of numbers. With only a basic science background, Boole labored 5 years to learn mathematics, eventually publishing in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal. His reputation was heightened in 1847 when he published The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, which introduced Boole's ideas on the two-valued (presence...

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This section contains 739 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Boole, George Encyclopedia Article
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Boole, George from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.