Into Unscientific

Chapter 331 A computer born 100 years earlier! (76K)

Chapter 331 A computer born 100 years earlier! (7.6K)

"."

Hear this sentence ringing in the ear.

Joseph Clement instantly looked like the heroine in a short time-stopping movie, with his eyes wide open and his mouth slightly open.

He stood there dumbfounded.

After a few seconds.

Joseph Clement recovered from his sluggishness, and suddenly turned his head to look at the person who made the sound, preparing to see where the other party came from.

As a result, seeing this almost didn't make him lose his temper:

The person who said those words was none other than Mai Mai standing beside Babbage!

At this time, Mai Mai's face showed no apology for saying something wrong, and there was an exclamation of "really delicious" on his face.

Combined with his already very simple and honest appearance, it seems that what he said is a well-known common sense.

provocative!

This is definitely a provocation instructed by Babbage! !

Joseph Clement pulled a passerby aside a little violently.

He didn't care about the wheat, but frowned, and looked straight at Babbage:

"Charles! What on earth do you want?"

"I've already warned you, this is the International Industry Fair, not a place where you can make trouble at will!"

"If Your Majesty is angry, all of you will die together!"

Babbage glanced at him with a neurotic look:

"Joseph, are you out of your mind?"

"Don't even think about it, if I really play tricks, you can still demonstrate this difference engine?"

Babbage's words were straightforward, and his earlier action of pulling Xu Yun and others to the side represented his attitude—he really wasn't going to disrupt the stage at the fair.

Looking at Babbage with a face full of "Your brain is convulsed", Joseph Clement suddenly felt the veins on his forehead throbbing.

He pointed at the wheat and asked:

"Then why did you let this kid come out and talk nonsense?"

"?"

Babbage glanced at the wheat beside him, pulled him to his side protectively, and asked:

"What was he talking about?"

Joseph Clement gave an aha, and laughed angrily at him:

"This young man asked me if the difference machine could calculate the multiplication and division of 20-digit numbers—it's fine to ask such a meaningless question. After I answered, I actually said that I said that my equipment is rubbish, which is really unreasonable!"

As Joseph Clement thought.

The reason why the stunned young wheat jumped out must be Babbage's plan to stop losses.

Next, Babbage should reply unreasonably, "The child is just kidding", and then he will either be ridiculed by himself - this possibility is relatively small, or he will use this as an opportunity to say haha, and leave the scene in despair.

So he puffed up his chest slightly, ready to send out a wave of talk.

Clinker

Babbage just blinked, then nodded:

"Sorry. I don't seem to understand. Did Maxwell say something wrong?"

"A difference engine that can only calculate eight-digit multiplication and division is really good."

"."

Hearing Babbage's reply, Joseph Clement inexplicably fell silent.

After a few seconds.

Hisoko Hook, who was standing beside him, suddenly heard a crackling sound—it was the collision of the back molars due to excitement:

"what are you saying?"

Sissoko Hook turned his head quickly.

Only at this moment.

Joseph Clement, a gentleman who had always been dignified and dignified, could no longer see the elegance and reserve he had before.

He opened his mouth and moved his eyes, his beard and hair were open, and his emotions were even more agitated than Babbage's before:

"Charles Babbage, what are you kidding?! Don't think you can boast here just because you designed some blueprints!"

"Unless Fat Fish revives the difference engine that can calculate the multiplication and division of twenty digits, no one will be able to do it, not to mention now, fifty years from now!"

"If you don't give a reasonable explanation today, the title I fought for will be taken away, and I will drag you to seek justice in front of His Majesty and the Queen!"

Harvey Clement also took a step forward when he heard this, and stood beside his father.

He straightened his chest, revealing the badge of his member of the House of Commons, expressing his support.

Sissoko then arrived on the other side of Joseph Clement, adding momentum to the Oxford partner.

Seeing the resolute expressions of the three teasers in front of him, Babbage couldn't help but exchanged glances with Xu Yun, Lao Tang and the others, and they burst out laughing together.

Then Lao Tang walked up to Joseph Clement, looked him up and down, and asked:

"Monsieur Joseph, would you like an explanation?"

Joseph Clement lingered for a while on the badge of the President of the Cambridge University Student Union on Lao Tang's chest, still panting heavily:

"Of course, this matter must be explained to me. Even if you are the president of the Students' Union of Cambridge University, don't try to talk about it!"

Old Tang Jian said lightly nodded and said casually:

"I see, Mr. Joseph, please come with me."

Joseph Clement was still angry at this time, and a question mark subconsciously appeared on his face when he heard this:

"where to?"

Lao Tang shrugged at him:

"Of course I'm taking you to see a machine that can multiply and divide 20-digit numbers, Caibi."

The last two words in Laotang's dialect were Chinese learned from Xu Yun, so Joseph Clement did not know the lethality of these two words.

At this moment, his attention was entirely on the first half of Lao Tang's sentence:

"Take you to see a machine that can multiply and divide twenty-digit numbers."

These few words were like the speed of a car in a newspaper boy's book, and wiped out Joseph Clement's stored momentum.

between astonishment.

He unconsciously followed Lao Tang's footsteps.

But just a few steps away, Harvey Clement stepped forward and stopped him:

"Father, father!"

My son's phrase "Where are you going, daddy" worked well, and Dang even brought Joseph Clement back to reality.

After recovering.

He blinked.

The heart suddenly began to beat rapidly.

As Babbage's partner for nearly twenty years, he is well aware of Babbage's situation after his reverse:

Depressed and even close to madness, every few days he has to look for alms from the benefactor.

Very little time is available for drawing design.

in this case.

No matter how talented Babbage was, he could never have designed a machine that could multiply and divide twenty-digit numbers.

But on the other hand.

Now the other party said so confidently at the expo, which is obviously contrary to common sense:

It is possible for Babbage to go crazy alone, but Ada, that idiot fan, accompanied him to try to explain the past, and he could explain it.

But together with people like Mai Mai, Lao Tang, and Xu Yun, the probability of getting sick is very, very low.

And except for the possibility of going crazy, the rest is.

Did they really design such a machine?

Think here.

Joseph Clement couldn't help but took a deep breath, pondered for a moment, and hit his crutch heavily:

"Harvey, go with them!"

Harvey Clemente nodded, helped his father and followed behind Lao Tang.

Seeing this, Sissoko Hook hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and left the Oxford booth with a few people.

As the figures of several people go away,

Other audiences at the exhibition site look at me and I look at you.

Just like the gossip party waiting to eat the three-character artist's big melon on the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2022, the bustling crowd followed.

"B3 Booth B4B6"

After walking along the industrial exhibition area for a while.

Lao Tang and Xu Yun stopped in front of a booth:

"It's here, B14!"

The size of this booth is not much smaller than that of Oxford, with a red and white pattern floating above it.

Xu Yun was so familiar with this pattern that he couldn't be more familiar with it. It was the school emblem of Cambridge University.

In other words.

The booth where Xu Yun and the others arrived was the booth of Cambridge University at the World Expo.

At the same time it is different from the Oxford University where Cisco Hooker is in charge of the scene.

The person in charge of the Cambridge University booth was Xu Yun and Mai's cheap mentor, George Stokes.

Seeing that Lao Tang was leading a group of people to his booth, Stokes quickly went up to him:

"Good morning, Mr. Thomson, this is you."

Lao Tang nodded to him, and then the two icebergs with paralyzed faces began to whisper.

After listening to Lao Tang's narration of the process.

Stokes glanced at the crowd gradually coming up, pondered for a moment, and said to Lao Tang:

"Student Thomson, although we are ready to exhibit that device, after all, it is a backup in case of necessity."

"As far as I know, it's far from complete."

"You and Mr. Charles are professionals in this field, so I hope you can give me a letter of approval-if you bring it to the booth now, will there be any mistakes or omissions in the demonstration results?"

Lao Tang shook his head decisively:

"Professor Stokes, don't worry, there will be no accidents, if you don't believe me, I can do it"

As he said that, Laotang turned around and glanced at Maimai, and found that Maimai didn't bring an ax today, and then he hesitated slightly, and then shook his head regretfully:

"Forget it. I can't guarantee you without the axe. Anyway, don't worry, there will be no mistakes."

Seeing that Lao Tang was so determined, Stokes no longer persisted:

"That's fine, I'll arrange for people to remove the protective cloth now."

After Stokes left.

Harvey Clement also helped Joseph Clement to the booth of Cambridge University.

Then, without waiting for his father to speak, Harvey Clement asked first:

"Thomson, where is your explanation? Where is it?"

Lao Tang frowned and glanced at the second president of the Apostle Society, a trace of disgust flashed in his eyes.

Now that their conflict has reached the point of irreconcilability, Lao Tang naturally wouldn't give him any good looks, so he replied dryly:

"Mr. Congressman, are you in a little hurry?"

"Since I brought you to the Cambridge exhibition hall, I will naturally give a reasonable explanation."

"The harder you yell now, the more painful your face will be when the time comes—have you forgotten what happened the night of the interview at the Apostle Club?"

When Harvey Clement heard this, a look of anger surged on his face.

at the same time.

There were also two faint pains in his stomach and forehead.

Of course he didn't forget that humiliating night, a perfect interview dinner for the Apostles Club, which was abruptly messed up by Xu Yun and Avelyn.

Although the final result was that Tang and Avelyn quit the Apostolic Society at the same time, Rossetti and the Whig camp won a big victory.

But he was punched hard by Xu Yun, and Aveline smashed his head with a plate, and it took him quite a while to recover.

But soon.

Harvey Clement thought of something, and the light in his eyes became flickering:

"You wait for me, in a few months, I must watch you"

But the thought hadn't flashed yet.

Harvey Clement's thoughts were interrupted by Stokes who returned to the crowd again:

"Everyone, the machine is ready."

I heard this.

Harvey Clement suddenly felt his arms loosen, and only after looking up did he realize that his father had already walked forward on crutches.

So he had no choice but to follow quickly.

Only at this moment.

In the middle of the open space seven or eight meters away from them, there is a very strange looking device:

Like Clement's Difference Engine, it has an obvious steam engine power source on one side.

At the same time, there are connecting tools such as counting needles and derivative hammers.

Judging from these devices, it is obviously also a computing device.

But where it was supposed to store a large number of storage gears, it was occupied by more than a dozen transparent glass tubes filled with mercury inside.

These glass tubes are about one meter long and about ten centimeters in diameter, and some complicated coils are wound around the outside.

If you look closely, you can also see some other small parts.

See this situation.

Joseph Clement frowned suddenly.

What is this?

If Babbage’s machine looks the same as his Difference Engine, then he can feel relieved:

Because today's design ideas can never achieve the effect of calculating twenty digits.

But this machine in front of me is a bit strange

Just when Joseph Clement frowned, Lao Tang walked over.

In his hand, he handed two calculation papers to Harvey Clement and Joseph Clement respectively:

"Gentlemen, in order to avoid being accused of pre-setting the results and falsifying the whole text, let the two of you write down the numbers yourself."

"Let's verify multiplication this time. The sum of multipliers with 20 digits can't exceed 20 digits and can't be 1. Surely both of you understand this truth?"

Joseph Clement snorted coldly and nodded.

The so-called operands of a difference engine can be divided into two types according to the algorithm.

The operand of addition and subtraction refers to the number to the left of the equal sign.

That is, addend and subtrahend/minuend in mathematics. (I don't remember whether there is an addend for addition.)

The output terminal, the sum or difference on the right side of the equal sign, will be one bit larger than the addend and the subtrahend/minuend.

That is, the operation of three-digit addition can be 333+333=666, or 999+999=1998.

Multiplication and division are different.

The operand of multiplication and division refers to the product or quotient, which is the number on the right side of the equal sign.

The sum of the values on the left side of the equal sign must be less than or equal to the operand, even if the operand X1 is still not acceptable.

Don't ask why, the logic of Babbage's design is just like this.

Although the Clements and his son wished Babbage would die early, this rule still had to be followed—or it could be said that there were so many people with mixed eyes that they had to follow it.

Then soon.

Clement and his son wrote down two tens digits on the paper:

8283749219.

9923463548.

Lao Tang took the paper and returned to the equipment.

First, the two sets of numbers were written on the cardboard for public announcement, and then they were handed over to Babbage:

"God bless you, Mr. Babbage, with all success."

Babbage thanked him, took two pieces of paper, glanced at them, and said to Ada:

"Ada, turn it on."

Hearing this, Ada took a deep breath, and pressed the start button with solemn eyes.

gurgling——

With the sound of the steam engine starting.

Babbage's mood also followed.

It's been 31 years.

31 years ago.

During a chat with John Herschel, he came up with the idea of the difference engine and started the related design.

1822.

He submitted a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "On the Application of Mechanism to Astronomical and Mathematical Table Calculations".

The concept of the difference engine was officially born.

1824.

The Royal Astronomical Society awarded him the gold medal representing the highest honor, in recognition of his invention of the difference engine.

He was 32 years old that year, and he was also the Lucasian Chair Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, and he was in the limelight for a while.

He thought that in the next thirty years, the whole world would admire his name.

However, when the time flies by, the years turn the page.

Only then did he realize that what came to him was not glory, but criticism, slander and ridicule.

The blows that followed brought him infinitely close to the brink of collapse.

And just when he thought he would regret it for the rest of his life, Sui Yue made a joke with him again.

A young man from the East found him and offered him a generous contract and a lot of exquisite design ideas.

The conversion of sound and electricity information directly increased the computing power of the entire analytical machine to a level that even Babbage could hardly imagine.

A scholar dies for his confidant.

in the last month.

He and Ada have broken through the 20-digit multiplication and division operation, the accuracy rate

hundred percent!

Although this calculation range is still far from the 35-digit calculation that Xu Yun agreed with him at the beginning, Xu Yun's star-seeking plan still needs at least a few months to start.

But for Cambridge University.

This is a hole card!

So under the discussion of the school directors, this unfinished analytical machine was moved to the Cambridge booth.

According to the plan.

If the other exhibits of the University of Cambridge can withstand the impact of the University of Oxford, even if it is temporarily defeated by a slight disadvantage, this device will not be exhibited to the public.

But now Oxford University has come up with a fax machine and a difference machine that is inferior to the analysis machine but still has the advantage of crushing.

The original anti-stress plan was disrupted.

Even if Babbage and the Clements would not quarrel, the device would still be officially unveiled.

Then Babbage pulled his mind back to reality and looked around.

This moment.

His fingers slowly pressed down on the keys, typing characters.

The touch of the button feedback is inexplicably subtle, and he feels like a pianist reporting a performance, doing a report on the stage of an opera house.

It's a pity that Xu Yun couldn't read Babbage's thoughts.

Otherwise, he will complain about it. Those who hit the keyboard in the later generations are also pianists, but they are fighting for the account book in Zaan

Spiritual Inheritance.JPG.

"82837"

Babbage concentrated on pressing a few numbers and said to Ada at the same time:

"Ada, is the program running normally?"

At this time, Ada didn't see the elegance of a countess at all. She was sitting on a small stool, unaware that the soles of her shoes had stepped on her skirt, and wiped her forehead when she heard the words:

"Everything is fine, you can continue typing!"

Babbage nodded and continued pressing the numbers.

in a minute.

Two factors are entered.

Babbage pressed another red button for output.

Snapped--

Less than two seconds.

A note slowly popped out.

Lao Tang stepped forward to take a look at the note, and then immediately announced it to the public to avoid suspicion:

"82203483415519345212."

at the same time.

click -