article thumbnail

How Did We Get Here? The Tangled History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Stephen Wolfram

But in 1798 Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) (1753–1814) measured the heat produced by the mechanical process of boring a cannon, and began to make the argument that, in contradiction to the caloric theory, there was actually some kind of correspondence between mechanical energy and amount of heat.

Energy 88
article thumbnail

Remembering the Improbable Life of Ed Fredkin (1934–2023) and His World of Ideas and Stories

Stephen Wolfram

It didn’t help that his knowledge of physics was at best spotty (and, for example, I don’t think he ever really learned calculus). Richard Feynman and I would get into very fierce arguments. But suffice it say to that Ed’s old nemesis—calculus—comes in very handy. It’s just my nature.

article thumbnail

Computer Science was always supposed to be taught to everyone, and it wasn’t about getting a job: A historical perspective

Computing Education Research Blog

My activities in computing education these days are organized around two main projects: Defining computing education for undergraduates in the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and Arts (see earlier blog post referencing this effort ); Participatory design of Teaspoon languages (mentioned most recently in this blog post ).