Boolean Algebra

Abstract

We need a language to discuss the design of the computer. Once upon a time, humans looked to the stars and developed what we know as Calculus to describe their motion. It turned out that algebra and calculus based on the real numbers work quite well to describe systems involving energy, motion, time, and space. The real numbers are a useful model for those quantities. Within our digital computer, however, we only have access to two values, logic-1 and logic-0. We don’t have an infinity of values over which our functions may vary. Therefore, the early pioneers of computing found themselves faced with a dilemma. They could not use the classical mathematics they knew and loved; rather, they faced the task of developing a new mathematics capable of working with only two values.