INVENTION 2: Com
p
uter Programs
Although it hadn't
been built yet, the
Analytical Engine
was designed to
store information
and make math
calculations. Ada
wanted to help.
When Ada was a
teenager, she met
an inventor named
Charles Babbage.
He was working on
an early version of a
computer called the
Analytical Engine.
In the 1840s, an
Italian mathematician
wrote a paper about
the Analytical Engine.
Ada translated the
paper and added
her own notes. She
wrote a series of
instructions for the
Analytical Engine
to calculate math
equations.
I'd love
to help!
Now we use computer programs
every day in apps, websites,
robots, spaceships ...
and more!
Growing up in the
early 1800s, young
Ada Lovelace had
a special interest in
math and science.
Ada's ideas for the
Analytical Engine are
now seen as the first
computer program.
That makes her the
world's first computer
programmer!
Ada was ahead of her
time. She predicted
that computers would
one day be able
to handle not just
numbers but also
words, pictures and
sounds. Her vision
did come true—
100 years later!
Chickadee 11
