George Boole

# Introduction

Almost everybody who has reached high school has heard of the mathematician George Boole, the man responsible for creating Boolean Algebra. He created a system of mathematics that was useless at the time, but now is a very important branch in the "information age", as it is used to program computers.

### Basic Information

George Boole was born November 2, 1815 in Lincoln, England, and he died December 8, 1848 in Ballintemple, Ireland in 1864. Like most people at the time, he first started to learn mathematics from his father, John Boole. George Boole also was largely self-taught. His favourite subject was classics, rather than mathematics. The inventor of Boolean algebra began teaching when he was only 16 years old, as heneeded to help support his family. Later in his life, he started a school in his hometown Lincoln, and then he moved on to become the first math professor at the Queen's College in Cork, even though he had never actually attended university himelf.

### Published Papers/Notable Achievements

If you are to be recognized in the fields of mathematics and science, you must publish papers. George Boole published many papers, and his first was the "Theory of Analytical Transformations". George Boole only published two treatises in his lifetime. He published the "Treatise on Differential Equations" in 1859, and the "Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences" in 1860. A notable achievement is that he won a gold medal for mathematics in 1844 when he was only 29 years old, from the British Royal Society. He even wrote a book entitled "The Laws of Thought", and it was published in 1854. George Boole is also the author of many papers that I have not mentioned here.

### Basic Idea of Boolean Algebra

At the beginning of George Boole's time, logic was a thing that was studied by philosophers. George Boole did most of his work to show that logic should be studied by mathematicians instead. He did this by describing logical principles in equations with symbols, instead of words. This field that he founded is known as symbolic logic. George Boole then invented the discipline of mathematics called Boolean Algebra. Now, this is not only used in circuitry in things like computers for binary circuits, but also in telephone wiring. Boolean Algebra separates everything into objects and assigns it a property, and can describe all the objects together with the presence or absence of that property. In circuitry, that property is either ON or OFF.

### Mathematical Equation

As taken from his paper, The Calculus of Logic, here is the General Solution of Elective Equations:

(1)
\begin{align} % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+- % feqaeaartrvr0aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn % hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaebbnrfifHhDYfgasaacH8srps0l % bbf9q8WrFfeuY-Hhbbf9v8qqaqFr0xc9pk0xbba9q8WqFfea0-yr0R % Yxir-Jbba9q8aq0-yq-He9q8qqQ8frFve9Fve9Ff0dmeaabaqaciGa % caGaaeqabaaaamaaaOqaaiaadMhacqGH9aqpdaWcaaqaaiabfA6agj % aacIcacaaIXaGaaGimaiaacMcaaeaacqqHMoGrcaGGOaGaaGymaiaa % icdacaGGPaGaeyOeI0IaeuOPdyKaaiikaiaaigdacaaIXaGaaiykaa % aacaWG4bGaey4kaSYaaSaaaeaacqqHMoGrcaGGOaGaaGimaiaaicda % caGGPaaabaGaeuOPdyKaaiikaiaaicdacaaIWaGaaiykaiabgkHiTi % abfA6agjaacIcacaaIWaGaaGymaiaacMcaaaGaaiikaiaaigdacqGH % sislcaWG4bGaaiykaiaac6cacaGGUaGaaiOlaiaac6cacaGGUaGaai % Olaiaac6cacaGGUaaaaa!5ABE! $y = \frac{{\Phi (10)}}{{\Phi (10) - \Phi (11)}}x + \frac{{\Phi (00)}}{{\Phi (00) - \Phi (01)}}(1 - x)........$ \end{align}

#### Bibliography

Works Cited
"Boole, George." Compton's by Britannica. ELibrary. TVDSB, St. Thomas. 26 Feb. 2008. Keyword: George Boole.

Boole, George. "The Calculus of Logic." Crumpled. 26 Feb. 2008 <http://www.crumpled.com/cp/classics/boole.html>.

"George Boole." Boolean Society. 26 Feb. 2008 <http://www.boolean.org.uk/gb.htm>.

"George Boole." Wikipedia. Oct. 2007. 26 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boole>.

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page revision: 9, last edited: 27 Mar 2008 17:02