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Boolean algebra, also called Boolean logic, is at the heart of the electronic circuitry in everything we use - from our computers and cars, to home appliances. How did a system of mathematics established in the Victorian era become the basis for such incredible technological achievements a century later? In The Logician and the Engineer, Paul Nahin combines engaging problems and a colorful historical narrative to tell the remarkable story of how two men in different eras - mathematician and philosopher George Boole and electrical engineer and pioneering information theorist Claude Shannon - advanced Boolean logic and became founding fathers of the electronic communications age. Nahin takes readers from fundamental concepts to a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of modern digital machines, in order to explore computing and its possible limitations in the twenty-first century and beyond.
About the author
Paul J. Nahin is the author of many bestselling popular math books, including
Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt,
In Praise of Simple Physics, and
An Imaginary Tale (all Princeton). He is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire.
Summary
Third printing. First paperback printing. Original copyright date: 2013.
Additional text
"Nahin leavens the math and engineering with humor and an infectious intellectual curiosity, and the parallels between Boole and Shannon are convincingly drawn. . . . [The Logician and the Engineer] will give your brain a workout, but an enjoyable one."
Report
"Meshing logic problems with the stories of two extraordinary men. . . Paul Nahin fashions a tale of innovation and discovery. Alongside a gripping account of how Shannon built on Boole's work, Nahin explores others key to the technological revolution, from Georg Cantor to Alan Turing."--Nature
