GOTTFRIEDWilhelm Leibniz was aGerman philosopher, inventor and mathematician laid the foundations for the modern day calculator and computer.
Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646 in Leipzig and lived to be 70 years old and his birthday has been celebrated by a Google Doodle.
Alamy Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz made the foundations for the modern day computer
Who was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz?
Leibniz was one of the most brilliant minds of his age and became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators, building on Pacal's calculator and he was the first to describe a pinwheel calculator in 1685.
He designed the Leibniz wheel, used in the arithmometer, the first mass-produced mechanical calculator.
Liebniz also refined the binary number system, the foundation of virtually all modern-day computers.
He wrote works on philosophy, politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology.
Archimedes, a mathematician in ancient Greece, first came up with an algorithm to calculate pi around 250 BC with the formula refined and improved by mathematicians in China and India.
Leibniz is credited as stating the first modern formula for pi.
His parents were Friedrich Leibniz and Catharina Schmuck.
He wrote his doctorate at the Leipzig University before enrolling at the University of Altdorf and passed his Doctorate in Law in November 1666.
Despite his brilliant mind he spent his final years cut out of the intellectual world after John Keill accused him of plagiarising Isaac Newton's work on calculus.
Google Google is honouring the German mathematician and philosopher with a Google Doodle
Even though he was a member of both the Royal Society and the Berlin Academy of Sciences neither body bothered to honour his death in 1716.
His grave went unmarked for more than 50 years.
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What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
Among the Doodles published in 2018 were ones commemorating cartographer Abraham Ortelius, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif and St Patrick's Day.
Earlier in the year, the search giant celebrated the Paralympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang with an animated design celebrating each of the sports the winter Paralympians will compete in.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is also credited for stating the first modern formula for pi.
Google today celebrates the 372nd birthday of German philosopher and mathematician's Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz with a doodle. He was born on July 1, 1646, Leipzig, then Roman Empire (now in Saxony, Germany). His contributions to a vast array of subjects have been scattered across various journals.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was easily one of the most brilliant minds of his time and occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics. He is credited for his inventions in the field of mechanical calculators and was the first to describe a pinwheel calculator in 1685 and invented the Leibniz wheel, used in the arithmometer.
He occupies a prominent position for having developed differential and integral calculus independently of Isaac Newton. His notation has been widely used ever since it was published. The foundation of all modern-day computers has also been refined by him because of binary number system.
Mr Leibniz is also credited for stating the first modern formula for pi.
In philosophy, Mr Leibniz is most noted for his conclusion that our Universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one that God could have created, an idea that was often lampooned by others such as Voltaire.
He wrote and major contributions in the fields of philosophy, politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology.
Despite all this, he spent his final years away from the intellectual circles of the world after Scottish mathematician John Keill accused him of plagiarising Isaac Newton's work on calculus.
He died at the age of 70 in Hanover in 1716.
Google
Sunday's Google Doodle celebrates the 372nd birthday of mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He was born near the end of the Thirty Years War, into a world very different from today's, but his work helped lay the foundation for the computer or smartphone on which you're reading this article.
Working independently but at around the same time as Isaac Newton, Leibniz developed differential calculus, a type of mathematics used to calculate rates of change, and integral calculus, a type of mathematics used to calculate things like area and volume. Because Leibniz and Newton were both members of the Royal Society in London, it's likely they would have heard of each other's work even though they weren't collaborating. Leibniz was the first to publish, in 1684; Newton followed nine years later in 1693. But a few years later, the Royal Society - with Newton as its newly-installed president - accused Leibniz of plagiarizing Newton's work. The two mathematicians had used different ways of writing calculus down, however, and Leibniz's version is still used today - so in a way, he had the last word as well as the first.
Leibniz also developed the binary system, whose notation of zeroes and ones is the basis of modern computer languages. His book, Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire, credited the ancient Chinese divination manual, the I Ching, with inspiring the binary system of zeroes and ones, since the I Ching's hexagrams use a very similar notation to record numbers. In an age of European ethnocentrism, Leibniz still recognized China's long-standing mathematical advancement. He also drew on the work of European mathematicians who had already invented their own systems of binary notation, but he refined and simplified those systems into the modern form of binary. And he wrote about logical properties that would be very familiar to modern information theorists and computer programmers - even if it's written in ink on parchment, as Sunday's Google Doodle depicts.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646, in Leipzig, Germany toward the end of the devastating Thirty Years’ War. His father, a Professor of Moral Philosophy, died when he was six years old, and he was raised by his mother. After his father’s death, Leibniz inherited his extensive library, which is where his ideas began to take shape. Leibniz’s life was defined by academics: He has his undergraduate in philosophy by the age of 15, achieved a masters degree the next year, and was awarded his bachelor’s degree in law at the age of 17 after only one year of studies.
His philosophical writings consist mainly of journal articles, manuscripts published long after his death, and many letters to many correspondents. Through his life, Leibniz’s most notable accomplishment is considered to be his conception of the ideas of differential and integral calculus independently and simultaneously with Isaac Newton's similar conceptions. In 1676, Isaac Newton accused him of having seen his unpublished work on calculus. There was alleged to be evidence to prove that Leibniz stole calculus from Newton.
Getty / Google Google doodle: Today's doodle is written in binary in tribute to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Mathematicians have come to favour Leibniz’s notation as the conventional expression of calculus, while Newton’s became unused. Leibniz’s later years were plagued by these accusations of plagiarism, a period known as the 'calculus priory dispute'. By the time of his death in Hanover 1716, aged 70, he had fallen out of favour in society, including amongst British Royalty, with whom he has ties. Even though Leibniz was a life member of the Royal Society and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, neither organisation saw fit to honour his death.
Getty Google doodle: Leibniz's house in Hannover, Germany
His grave went unmarked for more than 50 years. Historians of mathematics writing since 1900 or so have tended to acquit Leibniz, pointing to important differences between Leibniz's and Newton's versions of calculus. In 1900, British philosopher Bertrand Russell published a critical study of Leibniz's metaphysics, making his ideas respectable to a modern audience. In 1985, it seemed Leibniz had finally redeemed himself, when the German government created the Leibniz Prize, offering an annual award euros for experimental and theoretical projects.
Getty Google doodle: The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitat Hannover
