The first calculating devices

By Nancy Witmaker

The very first 1) cal_ulating device used was the ten fingers of a man's hands. This, in fact, is why today we still count in tens and 2) mult_ples of tens. Then the 3) abac_s was 4) in_ented. People went on using some form of abacus well into the 16^th 5) cen_ury, and it is still being used in some parts of the world because it can be understood with­out 6) kno_ing how to 7) re_d.

During the 17^th and I8^lh centuries many people tried to find easy ways of 1) _____. J.Napier, a Scotsman, 2) _____ a me­chanical way of multiplying and dividing, which is now the modern slide works. Henry Briggs used Napier's ideas to produce 3) _____ tables which all mathematicians use today. In 1830 Charles Babbage, a gifted English 4) _____ , proposed to build a general-purpose problem-solving machine that he called "the analytical engine". This 5) _____ was an attempt to cut out the human being altogether, except for 6) ______ the machine with the necessary facts about the problem to be solved. He never finished this work, but many of his ideas were the ba­sis for building today's 7) ______.

Until the middle of the 1) (twentyth, twentieth) century machines designed to manipulate punched card data 2) (was, were) widely used for business data processing. These early electromechanical data processors were called unit record machines because 3) (no, each) punched card contained a unit of data. By the end of the 1960s commercial models of 4) (these, that) computers were widely used for both scientific computation and business data processing. Initially these computers accepted their input data 5) (into, from) punched cards. By the late 1970s punched cards 6) (has, had) been almost universally replaced by keyboard terminals. Since that time the past is but the prologue that gives us a glimpse of the nature.

Спеціальність: Математика

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From www.psyhorg.com

01.12.10

Where is mathematics in Europe?

By Chloe Kembery

Europe needs an Institute of Industrial Mathematics to 1) ti_hten the link between maths and industry as an enabler of 2) in_ovation – putting maths at the heart of Europe's innovation, according to the European Science Foundation in a report launched today in Brussels at the "Maths and Industry" Conference. Such an Institute would help not only to 3) ove_come the fragmentation that currently 4) chara_terizes mathematics research in Europe, but also to act as a magnet for 5) excel_ence and innovation much like Europe's Centre for 6) Nu_lear Research (CERN) gave the world both the world wide web and the Large Hadron Collider to 7) investi_ate the big bang.

The Institute would be designed as a vast 1) _____ of world-class mathematicians, making them easily 2) _____ for collaboration with companies seeking novel 3) _____. The institute would connect hubs of academic 4) _____, as well as resources such as databases and libraries. As a centralized resource, this Institute would be particularly useful for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that often 5) ______ to tap into the continent-wide pool of industrial 6) ______, but which represent Europe's main driver of innovation and a major 7) _____ of job creation.

In addition to setting up the Institute, the report also 1) (recommend, recommends) allocating EU funds for 2) (an, a) specific industrial and applied 3) (mathematics, mathematic) project 4) (at, under) the upcoming 8th R&D Framework Programme, the next EU-wide funding initiative for science. In addition, 5) (they, it) advises for the implementation of an industrial policy that includes an EU-wide 'Small Business Act in Mathematics' which 6) (shall, would) fund spin-off companies based on mathematics as is already the case in Germany and Sweden.

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From The Financial Times

22.10.09