Ada Lovelace Quotes
Mathematical science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. But to use and apply that language, we must be able fully to appreciate, to feel, to seize the unseen, the unconscious.
Lovelace, Ada. Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: A Selection from the Letters of Lord Byron's Daughter and Her Description of the First Computer. Edited by Betty A. Toole, Strawberry Press, 1992, p. 116.
This quotation illustrates one of the major reasons politicians and laymen have difficulty making educational policy on mathematics education. It is the laws that govern mathematics and their structure that is most critical, not the ability to calculate and measure although the latter are important and useful by products.
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and to have published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as one of the first computer programmers.
