Boolean algebra
Álgebra de Boole
- Date
- 1847-1854 · confidence high
- Place
- Lincoln and Cork (Queen's College), United Kingdom and Ireland
- Credited to
- George Boole (The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, 1847; The Laws of Thought, 1854)
- People
- 👤 George Boole1815–1864
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
The treatment of logic as an algebra with two values and the operations of conjunction, disjunction and negation. It turns reasoning into calculation and is the mathematical foundation of digital circuits.
Shannon showed in 1938 that Boolean algebra describes relay circuits, connecting logic and electronics.
What it led to
- mathematical logic
- switching circuits (Shannon, 1938)
- computation theory
- databases and search
Built on
- Aristotelian syllogistic logicc. 350 BCE
- Aristotelian syllogistics
- Leibniz's calculus ratiocinator
- De Morgan