From aus.org.acs Sun Jul 3 10:00:22 1994 Xref: sserve aus.org.acs:269 soc.culture.australian:19801 soc.culture.british:61090 aus.theatre:94 Newsgroups: aus.org.acs,soc.culture.australian,soc.culture.british,aus.the atre Path: sserve!ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au!tomw From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: Stoppard play chaos theory character based on Ada? Message-ID: <1994Jul2.103223.26466@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au> Sender: news@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Sat, 2 Jul 1994 10:32:23 GMT Status: RO Just came back from the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, at the Sydney Opera House. It ties together, in an entertaining way: English landscape architecture, mathematics and poetry. The main character, Thomasina Coverty,is is a young aristocrat and a mathematical genius, but is ignored because she is female. She is obsessed with mathematics involving iteration. Lord Byron also features in the play. Can anyone tell me if Tom Stoppard based the character on Ada (the one the Ada computer programming language is named after)? Ada lived in this period, had a connection to Byron, studied algorithms and was unrecognized in her time. Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board Australian Computer Society Inc. G.P.O. Box 446, Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: +61 6 247 4830, Email: tomw@adfa.oz.au, Fax: +61 6 249 6419 ABOUT THE ACS The Australian Computer Society is the professional association in Australia for those in the computing and information technology fields. Established in 1966, the ACS has over 14,000 members and on a per capita basis is one of the largest computer societies in the world. Activities are announced in the Usenet newsgroup 'aus.org.acs'. Information is available via e-mail from 'info@acs.org.au' or Gopher at URL: gopher://acs-gopher.mit.csu.edu.au:1605/00/acs, courtesy of Charles Sturt University. From aus.org.acs Sun Jul 3 19:18:07 1994 Xref: sserve aus.org.acs:270 soc.culture.australian:19824 soc.culture.british:61128 aus.theatre:95 Path: sserve!yarrina.connect.com.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuin fo!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!n ewsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!cha rnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!psgrain!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!unixg.ubc.ca!jco oper From: jcooper@unixg.ubc.ca (J.Cooper) Newsgroups: aus.org.acs,soc.culture.australian,soc.culture.british,aus.the atre Subject: Re: Stoppard play chaos theory character based on Ada? Followup-To: aus.org.acs,soc.culture.australian,soc.culture.british,aus.the atre Date: 3 Jul 1994 03:43:40 GMT Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 28 Message-ID: <2v5c5c$e85@nnrp.ucs.ubc.ca> References: <1994Jul2.103223.26466@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: unixg.ubc.ca X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Status: RO Tom Worthington (tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au) wrote: : Just came back from the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, at the Sydney Opera : House. It ties together, in an entertaining way: English landscape : architecture, mathematics and poetry. The main character, Thomasina Coverty,is : is a young aristocrat and a mathematical genius, but is ignored because she is : female. She is obsessed with mathematics involving iteration. Lord Byron also : features in the play. : Can anyone tell me if Tom Stoppard based the character on Ada (the one the Ada : computer programming language is named after)? Ada lived in this period, had a : connection to Byron, studied algorithms and was unrecognized in her time. : Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board : Australian Computer Society Inc. Yes, Stoppard based the character partially on Byron's wife Annabella Millbanke, a woman with a special passion for mathematics. A daughter was born to them named Augusta Ada. Stanza 12 from the first Canto of *Don Juan* describing Don Juan's mother Donna Inez is often thought to be a satirical portrait of the much-abused Annabella. The stanza begins "Her favorite science was the mathematical, . . ." and goes on from there in the tone of bitchy irony which made Byron such a charmer in his day. John Xiros Cooper From aus.org.acs Tue Jul 5 22:45:36 1994 Xref: sserve aus.org.acs:271 soc.culture.australian:19867 soc.culture.british:61185 aus.theatre:96 Newsgroups: aus.org.acs,soc.culture.australian,soc.culture.british,aus.the atre Path: sserve!yarrina.connect.com.au!warrane.connect.com.au!pta.pyram id.com.au!sword.eng.pyramid.com!gossip.pyramid.com!olivea!char nel.ecst.csuchico.edu!nic-nac.CSU.net!csus.edu!netcom.com!ewad ams From: ewadams@netcom.com (Ernest Adams) Subject: Re: Stoppard play chaos theory character based on Ada? Message-ID: Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) References: <1994Jul2.103223.26466@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au> Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 04:03:41 GMT Lines: 36 Status: RO tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) writes: >Just came back from the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, at the Sydney Opera >House. It ties together, in an entertaining way: English landscape >architecture, mathematics and poetry. The main character, Thomasina Coverty,is >is a young aristocrat and a mathematical genius, but is ignored because she is >female. She is obsessed with mathematics involving iteration. Lord Byron also >features in the play. >Can anyone tell me if Tom Stoppard based the character on Ada (the one the Ada >computer programming language is named after)? Ada lived in this period, had a >connection to Byron, studied algorithms and was unrecognized in her time. I haven't seen the play, but the answer is almost certainly Yes. Ada was Lord Byron's only legitimate daughter. She was, however, kept away from her father and force-fed mathematics in the hopes that concentrating on something etherial would reduce the chances that she would be "corrupted" by having his blood in her veins. As it turned out, she was a mathematical genius, so it actually worked. Ada's full name was Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace. She took the "king" when she married Henry (?) King, Earl of Lovelace. Lady Lovelace was the world's first computer programmer. She was the only one who really understood Babbage's design for the Analytical Engine, and she wrote a series of notes on it. Her "Note G" is generally accepted to be the first computer program, a sequence of instructions to the machine to compute the Bernoulli Numbers. As the Analytical Engine was never built, her software never ran. In later life she developed an addiction to gambling, and tried to use mathematics as a means of developing a system to help her win. She died, rather horribly, of ovarian cancer in 1851. Hope this gives a little more useful background. Gale Edwards, Director "Arcadia", Sydney Theatre Company, fax: 022513687 THOMASINA COVERLY IN ARCADIA BASED ON ADA? Went to "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, at the Sydney Opera House yesterday. I found the connection between English landscape architecture, mathematics and poetry interesting. Did Tom Stoppard base the character Thomasina Coverly on Ada (the one the Ada computer programming language is named in honor of)? Ada lived in this period, had a connection to Byron, studied algorithms and was unrecognized in her time. Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board Australian Computer Society Inc. 3/7/94 G.P.O. Box 446, Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: +61 6 247 4830, Email: tomw@adfa.oz.au, Fax: +61 6 249 6419 ABOUT THE ACS The Australian Computer Society is the professional association in Australia for those in the computing and information technology fields. Established in 1966, the ACS has over 14,000 members and on a per capita basis is one of the largest computer societies in the world. Activities are announced in the Usenet newsgroup 'aus.org.acs'. Information is available via e-mail from 'info@acs.org.au' or Gopher at URL: gopher://acs-gopher.mit.csu.edu.au:1605/00/acs, courtesy of Charles Sturt University. John McCallum, Theater Reviews, The Australian, fax: 022821640 CC: Gale Edwards, Director "Arcadia", Sydney Theatre Company, fax: 022513687 THOMASINA COVERLY IN ARCADIA BASED ON MOTHER OF WORLD'S FIRST PROGRAMMER Read your review of "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard in The Australia today, with interest ("Newton and the Mathematics of Sex"). I went to Saturday's performance and found the connection between English landscape architecture, mathematics and poetry interesting. I "posted" a question on the global Internet computer network about the inspiration for the character Thomasina Coverly. Attached is the question I asked and the reply I received (from Canada). Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board Australian Computer Society Inc. 4/7/94 G.P.O. Box 446, Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: +61 6 2856209, Email: tomw@adfa.oz.au, Fax: +61 6 249 6419 ABOUT THE ACS The Australian Computer Society is the professional association in Australia for those in the computing and information technology fields. Established in 1966, the ACS has over 14,000 members and on a per capita basis is one of the largest computer societies in the world. Activities are announced in the Usenet newsgroup 'aus.org.acs'. Information is available via e-mail from 'info@acs.org.au' or Gopher at URL: gopher://acs-gopher.mit.csu.edu.au:1605/00/acs, courtesy of Charles Sturt University. ---------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: aus.org.acs,soc.culture.australian,soc.culture.british,aus.the atre From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: Stoppard play chaos theory character based on Ada? Date: Sat, 2 Jul 1994 10:32:23 GMT Just came back from the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, at the Sydney Opera House. It ties together, in an entertaining way: English landscape architecture, mathematics and poetry. The main character, Thomasina Coverty,is is a young aristocrat and a mathematical genius, but is ignored because she is female. She is obsessed with mathematics involving iteration. Lord Byron also features in the play. Can anyone tell me if Tom Stoppard based the character on Ada (the one the Ada computer programming language is named after)? Ada lived in this period, had a connection to Byron, studied algorithms and was unrecognized in her time. -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- From: jcooper@unixg.ubc.ca (J.Cooper) Subject: Re: Stoppard play chaos theory character based on Ada? Date: 3 Jul 1994 03:43:40 GMT Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Tom Worthington (tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au) wrote: : Just came back from the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, at the Sydney... Yes, Stoppard based the character partially on Byron's wife Annabella Millbanke, a woman with a special passion for mathematics. A daughter was born to them named Augusta Ada. Stanza 12 from the first Canto of *Don Juan* describing Don Juan's mother Donna Inez is often thought to be a satirical portrait of the much-abused Annabella. The stanza begins "Her favorite science was the mathematical, . . ." and goes on from there in the tone of bitchy irony which made Byron such a charmer in his day. John Xiros Cooper -------------------------------------------------------------- ------