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Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, met mathematician Charles Babbage at 17 and published the first algorithm for his Analytical Engine, earning her the title of the world’s first computer programmer. She explained the engine more clearly than Babbage and theorized a method for it to repeat instructions. She died at 36 and the modern programming language “Ada” is named after her.
Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate child of the legendary English poet Lord Byron, but he separated from his wife a month after Ada’s birth and left England, so they never knew each other. In 1833, at the age of 17, she Lovelace met the mathematician Charles Babbage, who had theorized a great calculating machine which she called the Analytical Engine. Spurred on by her scientific training and impressed by the idea of a “computer machine,” she Lovelace published the first algorithm for this hypothetical machine, earning her the title of the world’s first computer programmer.
A short but productive life:
In extensive writings, Lovelace explained the engine more clearly than Babbage had, even theorizing a method for the engine to repeat a series of instructions, a process known today as a loop.
Only a small piece of the Analytical Engine was built, but Lovelace’s contributions live on. The modern programming language “Ada” is named after her.
Over the next few years, Lovelace tried to develop mathematical patterns for winning at gambling. She died of uterine cancer at the age of 36 and was buried next to her father in Nottingham, England.
