Jul 01, 2018
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's 372nd Birthday
This Doodle’s Key Themes
Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, one of the most notable inventors and mathematicians of his time. Born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1646, Leibniz was raised in an academic family. It was not long before his thirst for innovation led him to develop mathematical tools that are the foundation for the ones used to this day.
Leibniz earned a master’s degree in philosophy at young age of 17, and a law degree at 20. In 1673, he invented the first mechanical calculator, called the “Step Reckoner,” which could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It is also said that Leibniz invented calculus independently of Sir Isaac Newton while studying in Paris in the 1670s - a point which is still heavily contended.
Leibniz was also inspired by works in different genres throughout time, including ancient philosophers of Greece and China. He wrote about the “monad,” a metaphysical idea of essential particles that was opposed to atoms. Leibniz believed all existence was made up of essential particles that were both biological and spiritual, impossible to be disentangled.
While Leibniz’s early calculator did not use the binary system, he invented that, too, in 1679. His concept of breaking information down to 0s and 1s, detailed in his 1703-published Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire (Explanation of Binary Arithmetic), is the basis of all computer programming. Today’s Doodle nods to this by spelling “Google” in binary.
Happy birthday, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz!
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