March 29, 2004
Arithmetricks with the Abacus
Excerpts from a speech that I delivered on March 29, 2004 at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
"Yet, in the main, American history books omit the contributions of India. They omit the contributions of Arab scholars. They omit the contributions of China.American history books tell us that the first programmable computer was invented in 1946 in the United States. I know that the first programmable computer was not invented in the United States.
The word “computer” was coined 700 years ago. But the computer was invented long before that.
The Abacus was the “first computer.” It was invented 5,000 years ago in China.
China also made numerous scientific contributions that we take for granted.
It was the Chinese invention of the compass that made it possible for Christopher Columbus to cross the oceans. Yet, we celebrate Columbus and ignore the Chinese inventor of the compass."
Posted by emeagwali at March 29, 2004 10:28 AM