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In a paper presented to the Royal Astronomical Society, English mathematician Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine (pictured), an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions.
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Royal Astronomical Society
British learned society and charity
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Charles Babbage
English mathematician, philosopher, and engineer (1791–1871)
Charles Babbage was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Difference engine
Automatic mechanical calculator
A difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. It was designed in the 1820s, and was created by Charles Babbage. The name difference engine is derived from the method of finite differences, a way to interpolate or tabulate…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Polynomial
Type of mathematical expression
In mathematics, a polynomial is a mathematical expression consisting of indeterminates and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and exponentiation to nonnegative integer powers, and has a finite number of terms. An example of a…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)