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New Research Explodes Myths About Ada Lovelace (ox.ac.uk)
Two mathematics historians investigated the Lovelace-Byron family archives (which are available online) to confirm the early mathematical prowess of Ada Lovelace for two scholarly journals. Slashdot reader bugs2squash shares a post from the Oxford Mathematical Institute:
The work challenges widespread claims that Lovelace's mathematical abilities were more "poetical" than practical, or indeed that her knowledge was so limited that Babbage himself was likely to have been the author of the paper that bears her name. The authors pinpoint Lovelace's keen eye for detail, fascination with big questions, and flair for deep insights, which enabled her to challenge some deep assumptions in her teacher's work. They suggest that her ambition, in time, to do significant mathematical research was entirely credible, though sadly curtailed by her ill-health and early death.
Ada Lovelace died in London at age 36.
Ada Lovelace died in London at age 36.
Then off to management. Or, like me at 40, organized crime.
The work challenges widespread claims that Lovelace's mathematical abilities were more "poetical" than practical, or indeed that her knowledge was so limited that Babbage himself was likely to have been the author of the paper that bears her name. The authors pinpoint Lovelace's keen eye for detail, fascination with big questions, and flair for deep insights,
If you keep looking at the big picture, and have a flair for deep insights, soon you'll discover eye gone values and be as impressive as Malcolm Gladwell.
Wolfram did an analysis of her situation, and suggests that her capability was like that of a competent graduate student, ready to do some good work (and be a reliable manager for Babbage, who lacked self-management skills) if life (and death) hadn't intervened. The paper talks about "exploding myths" but it doesn't really, Lovlace is already extremely well revered by many, and the people who claim she is overrated are in the minority.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I've read a fair bit about her, but I've never heard anyone claim all those bad things. Can anyone point to sources saying that? Sure, I think she liked poetry, but I can't even make sense of a claim wherein her insight was more 'poetic' than mathematical. What does that even mean?
Sometimes I think historical theories are made up to troll people. When some historian claims to have a completely new understanding of something, I read it as them trying to sell books....
Because none of that has fuck-all to do with her skills in the mathematics?
Even in a bet - she would have known the odds of losing.
"Woman can't be famous scholar, because she likes a bit on the side"? Really?
Go look at Hawking's personal life, nobody questions that.
Remember when we landed a probe on a comet, and all we heard about was how awful and sexist one guy's shirt was?
Only those who cared about science. Sadly when we landed a probe on a comet the only thing the majority of people cared about was whether or not the picture of Kim Kardashian's ass was real or Photoshoped. And if it was real, did she have butt implants?
Everyone knows only Asian Women have any Math Skills.
For starters, and not totally at random:
Sofia Kovalevskaya
Emmy Noether
Mary Cartwright
Julia Robinson
Maryam Mirzakhani
I'm a male. Not particularly a radical feminist, but I believe in women's rights and a fair playing field.
Why the rumors about Lovelace, and the need to do special investigative work about her? Are there any male mathematicians or scientists in history that need to be investigated? Why all the rumors that Babbage must have written her paper. A woman COULDN'T have been capable?
Just some food for thought...
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggl... ;-)
And you can order the book
Herve S.
There has been a lot of that going around, lately. Mathematics is actually pretty careful to remember its heroes, male and female, but Ada Lovelace is not among them. Other women are. This is a rather strong indicator of what is going on here.
It is true that there are a few, famous female mathematicians (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...), but off the top of my head, I could only name two: Emmy Noether and Sofia Kovalevskaya. The main reason for that is no doubt the fact that women were simply not allowed to study at university until an embarrassingly late date - Emmy Noether was only just allowed into Erlangen (in 1903, I believe) as one of only two women out of about 1000 students. And amazing as it may seem, there are still academic institutions where you meet a bias against women scientists, although things have improved.
So, I think, rather than the world of mathematics celebrating female mathematicians exactly as much as the males, there is still a legacy of reluctance, so that we only really hear about the ones that are so undeniably outstanding, that we have to accept them. Fortunately the world of academia has been improving a lot, but we aren't quite there yet.
Theorem is "laughably wrong", huh? Dafuq do you think math is?
Don't be ridiculous, men in general being better at math doesn't mean NONE of women is good at math.
Or, like me at 40, organized crime.
Private sector or government ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Noether's theorem is laughably wrong
Misogynist doesn't know what a theorem is. News at 11.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
The numbers answer the "what," not the "why."
The why is the normal reason why - it's hard. Not that they can't do it, they want to find an easier way to life.
No, there's something about the male mind that makes it unsuitable to get out of a career in Science. This stuff is hard.