# Mathematician:Augusta Ada Lovelace

## Mathematician

English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.

Creator of the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine.

Hence she is often regarded as the first computer programmer.

English

## History

• Born: 10 December 1815 in Piccadilly, Middlesex (now in London), England
• Died: 27 November 1852 in Marylebone, London, England

## Notable Quotes

Many persons who are not conversant with mathematical studies imagine that because the business of [Babbage's Analytical Engine] is to give its results in numerical notation, the nature of its processes must consequently be arithmetical and numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine its numerical quantities exactly as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and in fact it might bring out its results in algebraic notation, were provisions made accordingly.
-- $1844$ (quoted in 1997: Donald E. Knuth: The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms (3rd ed.))

## Also known as

Born Augusta Ada Byron, she married William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace and so became Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace.

Hence she is best known as Ada Lovelace.