what is george boole famous for

Famous mathematicians: George Boole

Who was he?

George Boole was born in Lincoln on the 2nd of November 1815. His father was a tradesman who had no money, but an active mind. Boole was given his first school lessons by his father. When he was sixteen years old Boole became an assistant teacher at a private school in Doncaster, then at 20 he opened his own school.

At 34, he went to Ireland to become the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork (now University College Cork) and he remained in this job until his death.

In a book published when he was 39: 'An Investigation of the Laws of Thought', on which are founded the mathematical theories of logic and probabilities, Boole reduced logic to an extremely simple type of algebra, in which 'reasoning' is carried out through manipulating simple formulas. He noticed the similarity between the symbols used in algebra, like x and +, and those used in logical statements, like AND and OR.

A logical mind

His theory of logic, which recognizes three basic operations - AND, OR and NOT - was to become crucial to the development of telephone circuit switching and the design of electronic computers. As you may know, computers use the base-two or "binary" number system, which turns every command into a string of ones and zeros – 0011101101001100100. To put it differently, everything a computer does boils down to a simple true or false decision. A computer's circuitry then builds everything else on the basis of these values. Another way of looking at it is that a circuit is either on (one) or off (zero).

Boolean algebra, as it is came to be called, therefore forms the basis of the way all digital computers work.