Ada Byron Lovelace & The Thinking Machine (1st Computer Programmer!) ｜ Kids Book Read Aloud

Hi kid and welcome to the super smarty pants KidTime StoryTime that's gonna make you think! You better think, think, think machine! All think, all think, set the numbers free! All free, all freedom! All freedom, all freedom! Free! Oh, I'm tired. Me too! Well, I'd be tired too because you had to think of that song didn't you? All by ourselves. Good job. Okay, so Ada Byron Lovelace and the thinking machine You know, we all think, but do you think about things that haven't even been invented yet? Because that's what this brilliant math thinker did Ada was born into a world of poetry But numbers, not words, captured her imagination You see, her mother, Lady Byron, had a passion for geometry In fact, her name was the Princess of Parallelograms Well, hello, Princess of Parallelograms But her famous father dominated the household And he was beloved for his romantic poems Lord Byron was a celebrity throughout the world And I'm sure that when you are, like, in the middle school, you know, realm You're gonna study romantic poetry of Lord Byron In fact, that's one of storytellers' favorite poems But this one is all about Ada, his little girl, who I didn't even know about So we are learning about her now together You earlier than me Now, unfortunately, unfortunately Lord Byron was also notorious for his scandalous behavior So scandalous, in fact, that Lady Byron just bundled up her new baby And fled London to her parents' home over a hundred miles away And Ada never saw her father again Can you believe it? That's a tough break right from the start A little girl without dad Well, but she wasn't so badly off Because she went into the world of numbers and her imagination Ada could only know her father through his books And with her mom often traveling, Ada was lonely Her journals filled with pages of inventions and equations Kept her company The best part was when her sketches flew off the pages and became real That is the very definition of letting your imagination soar Now, Ada's latest invention was a flying machine What? A flying machine? Now remember, there are no airplanes in this era She had built a set of real wings But could they actually fly? First, Ada needed to compute the wings' powers She broke the problem into steps Surface area, weight, wind speed, angles You know, the usual multiplying, dividing over and over again Well, Ada loved numbers But, but, but, but These calculations seemed just endless Even for a math genius like herself Was there an easier way? Writing for so long made her fingers hurt Again, no computer to type She has to write everything by hand Writing for so long, she made her have to wiggle her fingers You know, to like take the ache out of it And then she'd go back to her numbers 15 times 12 equals 180 Yada, yada, yada Calculation, calculation, calculation The sky darkened and the thunder crashed See, I'm moving the book around a little bit here too See, because I noticed that there was a glare there And I don't want you to see a glare So I'm holding it up a little bit So it's going to be just a little wobblier than usual The sky darkened and thunder crashed Rain pounded on the roof and pelted through the open window Ada jumped up to latch the shutters The curtains flapped in and out Like sails billowing in the wind Sails! Idea Sails were like wings Ada could use this wind to do an experiment for her flying machine She grabbed her journal and charged out into the howling storm Wow, I hope she has a raincoat Oh boy Again and again Ada launched her model sailboat Across the pond Each time she adjusted the sails And studied the effects on the little boat's speed Keeping track of the numbers A storm of numbers and calculations whirled in her mind and spilled onto the pages Experimentation Live and in the lab is real life right here Ribbit Well, you guys aren't helping very much Night fell, Ada returned home Oh, let me get you that There you go Night fell, Ada's back home Nice and cozy Well, not at first First, she was muddy, dripping wet and triumphant When Nanny saw Ada, she scolded her for being out in such dreadful weather She sniffed that she didn't care what Lady Byron thought Girls should not waste their time with math and science and experiments And other such nonsense Said the Nanny But to Ada, it wasn't nonsense at all Numbers were her friends After dinner, she sprawled on the floor with her puzzle book Her head, though, was hot and achy And the numbers squirmed on the paper And her eyes felt like they were filled with sand from the pond Ribbit Her shoes felt like they were filled with a toad Meow And there was a cat in the bath Well, by morning, trouble Ada had a high fever And Nanny didn't scold now She was actually worried and cabled Mama to come home right away Ada had the measles Back then, they didn't have the inoculation, the injection that you get from the doctor to not get it So if you got the measles, that was pretty bad Through many long days and nights, Mama read Ava her favorite books Well, the fever finally broke Good But the measles left her paralyzed and blind I didn't see that coming, did you? That was... That was a tough blow Very early on But to keep Ada's mind sharp, Mama quizzed her on math problems How much was 82 minus 25? 18 times 47 96 divided by 13 I don't even know these Numbers chased each other around Ada's head See, because she could do this without a calculator Just with the power of her own mind now Because the numbers are already inside of her Mama posed ever harder problems And Ada solved them all Problems like, how long does it take to travel to London? By carriage, it was an overnight journey But Ada's flying machine could go much faster than a carriage If Ada flew, she'd be able to reach London in only a few hours Just in time for tea Ada's numbers kept her company In her mind, look at that The imagination is a powerful place And takes us far, far away from where we are 15 times 12 was still 180 And always will be Whether Ada could see or not True, numbers do not change Regardless of whether you are blind or seeing Over the next few weeks, her eyes did get better But it was three long years before she could put away her crutches The girl who wanted to fly could not even walk But Ada, you know what she still had? Her numbers Numbers that mattered to her more than ever So her eyes got better, that's good And she was able to put away her crutches eventually So that means she was eventually able to walk All right, I shift the book Make sure you can read with me Mama recognized her daughter's passions Of course, because remember, she's the princess of parallelograms So she knows that her daughter is also a parallelogram princess She hired tutors So that Ada could learn math at an even higher level Ada's favorite was Mary Fairfax Somerville The well-known scientist and mathematician Oh, look at that, another mathy girl Back in the day when girls weren't supposed to do math Somerville was living proof That girls could do math and do it well She had even written books on the subject Another thing girls were not supposed to do Oh, so many limitations back then Somerville was so impressed by Ada's sharp reasoning skills That she invited Ada and her mother to a party But it's not just a party for dancing and dining But for sharing ideas, an idea party Maybe you could have one of those for your birthday The guests were scientists like Michael Faraday Who studied electromagnetism And Charles Wheatstone who invented a device To display three-dimensional images There he is showing it off But for Ada, for Ada The one who mattered the most was Charles Babbage He was a famous mathematician and inventor Just like Ada wanted to be Though she was only 17 and Babbage 41 Ada spoke about math with a precision and understanding That impressed him so much That he invited her to go visit his laboratory Look at that So that is a party of the mind That would be fun to have Instead of just eating cake and pizza Which is fine, you could still do that But then everybody would have to bring an idea A big idea to talk about and exchange ideas And inspire more ideas I love it I think I'm gonna have one Ada brought her journals to show him Her own experiments and inventions Their tea grew cold as they talked about Their love of machines and mathematics Babbage didn't see her simply as a young girl He treated her like a fellow mathematician and inventor The one she already was Before, numbers had been Ada's only friend Now Babbage was a friend as well Because that's what happens when you meet like-minded people You will meet your like-minded people too Babbage showed Ada his difference engine A revolutionary mechanical calculator He knew Ada would understand how his extraordinary invention worked And Ada, well, she did more than understand She couldn't wait to see the difference engine in action She chose to have the machine solve a simple problem One that she could easily do in her head 15 times 12 No big deal for this girl, right? Because she knows all the numbers And even though, look at that It looks like she can see again She's recuperated some of her eyesight She's worked so hard at figuring out math in her brain She didn't need to look too hard Oh, she looks pretty there Now, reaching inside the machine There we go Reaching inside the machine, Ada rotated the metal columns Until the numbers 15 and 12 appeared And then with a crank of the handle She powered the calculator That's how calculators were, right? This big and extreme They weren't these little things that you hold in your hand Gears clicked and turned Cylinders pumped up and down Small hammers clanked As the numbers spiraled upwards Guiding the machine to the correct solution After a few turns of the handle The answer appeared on the final column 180 It was right! Well, Babbage told Ada That he had designed an even more powerful device than that A mechanical computer His analytical engine would solve harder problems By working through them step by step You see, the mathematicians had to do everything Meticulously by hand Here he is inventing a machine That's going to do some of the analysis for you So that you don't get those cramped hands, right? Well, it would make decisions all by itself A true thinking machine The only trouble was... Well, Babbage hadn't actually built it It's still in the in my brain phase, we'll call it Well, Ada carried home a stack of Babbage's lab books 30 books! Wow, she had strong arms And they were all filled with his notes about this analytical engine Back in her room, she studied the descriptions And pored over the diagrams And she quickly realized Hey, without instructions The analytical engine is just going to be a useless pile of metal parts You need numbers to make it work Her numbers! Her friends! She can make the directions with her numbers Because machines work on the basis of numbers Ada decided to create an algorithm A set of mathematical instructions for the analytical engine The machine could follow these instructions And solve a complex math problem One that's really hard to figure out by hand See what she's doing? This is basically computer programming before a computer exists! That was a mind-blowing moment right there, wasn't it? She is introducing the first computer concepts right there where you see her Well, she worked for months revising her instructions Countless lines of numbers and symbols poured onto her journal page After checking and rechecking her algorithm through the night Ada finally laid down her pen She hadn't found any errors The world's first computer program was complete! The gears of Ada's mind Whirring with possibilities for future inventions All controlled by computing machines She imagined already that someday computers Would design powerful flying machines and majestic sailing ships They would draw pictures and compose music And they would play games and help with schoolwork And you know she was right, right? Because Babbage never finished building that analytical engine Ada never got to see her program run But the influence of her work, look at that, lives on More than a hundred years before the invention of the modern computer Ada had glimpsed the future and created a new profession Computer Programming I know a lot of kids these days love the idea of becoming computer programmers Ada, you can now say, was the first one She could be your inspiration source She of course would never know that back then That one day a computer language would be named after her Ada! And what is one of Ada's uses, you might ask? To guide modern flying machines Which means the girl who needed crutches ended up flying after all And we have a bunch of stuff here about her that I love I love these nicknames I gotta tell you a couple of these nicknames Bride of Science Carrier Pigeon That she would call herself that And because she would call her mom the hen Her mama hen So she was the Carrier Pigeon The Enchantress of Numbers That's what the scientist Babbage called her Because of her incredible mathematical abilities And High Priestess of Babbage's Engine She gave herself that big fancy title To show that she was the expert of the analytical engine A mechanical computer And isn't it incredible that in kind of a short life Only lived to be 36 years old Ada Byron Lovelace Thought her way into, well, immortality Because everybody knows she was the first computer programmer So what do you think? I think you better think, think Think about making the world a better place You better think, think makes you special That was, that was not in the script I was improvising because I think I'm good That was pretty impressive actually Thanks! I think so too I see what you did there Okay, you do Thanks for joining us on this very thoughtful KidTime StoryTime See you next time, Kid And subscribe and stuff Yeah, come back Bye Think, think, think And be free Bye