FREE ESSAY ON DEMORGAN

DEMORGAN

Augustus ?The Logical One? De Morgan
Augustus De Morgan was born in Mandura, India, on June 27, 1806. His father John was a
colonel in the Indian Army. At birth Augustus lost sight in his right eye. After seven
months he moved to England with his family. Augustus attended private education where he
learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and mathematics. He did not excel at school and was made
the blunt of all the jokes from his schoolmates. 
In 1923, at the age of sixteen, he entered Trinity College in Cambridge. He received his
bachelor?s degree at Trinity, but was not eligible for the master?s degree because he
refused to take the theological exam. He graduated from Trinity College in 1927. 
After graduation, De Morgan had to decide what he was going to do for the rest of his
life. ?Fearful of hypocrisy and religious bigotry?, he rejected his parent?s wishes of
becoming a priest. After looking at medicine and law, he finally decided on becoming a
mathematician. In 1928, De Morgan was awarded the position of the first Professor of
Mathematics at University College in London. In 1931, De Morgan resigned on principle
after another professor was fired with no explanation. 
In 1937, he married Sophia Frend, who would later write De Morgan?s biography. He was
also very involved in various associations. He was a member of the Astronomical Society,
the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and he also co-founded the London
Mathematical Society. He wrote thousands of books and articles on math, logic, and
philosophy. De Morgan had a large personal library of over 3,000 books, which was later
donated to the London University library after he died on March 18, 1871, in London
England. 
De Morgan contributed many accomplishments to the field of mathematics. He was the first
person to define and name ?mathematical induction? and developed De Morgan?s rule to
determine the convergence of a mathematical series. De Morgan also developed a decimal
coinage system, an almanac of all the full moons from 2000 B.C. to 2000 A.D., and a
theory on the probability of life events, which is used by insurance companies. 
De Morgan?s main contribution was to the field of logic. His most important development
was formal logic. It included the concept of a quantification of the predicate, an idea
that solved problems that were impossible under Aristotelian logic. For example, the
following can only be workable under De Morgan?s method :
o At a party 
o some kids got cake 
o some kids got ice-cream
o therefore, all the kids got dessert at the party 
He also made two laws corresponding to logic. The two laws are: ~(p @@ q) = ~p || ~q ,
~(p || q) = ~p @@ ~q. These laws are called De Morgan?s laws. De Morgan also used these
laws to correspond with Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Analytical Engine or the
basic computer. 
Augustus De Morgan refused many opportunities and awards such as being a member of the
Royal Society and refusing an honorary degree from University of Edinburgh. Thomas Hurst,
the successor of De Morgan at the Chair of Mathematics at the University College London,
commented that ?A dry dogmatic pedant I fear is Mr. De Morgan, notwithstanding his
unquestionable ability.? Also Macfarlane remarked that ? De Morgan considered himself a
Briton unattached neither English, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish.?
De Morgan was very interested in the history of mathematics. De Morgan felt that his
students and other people studying math should learn about the history of the subject to
be able to understand the topic more. In 1847, he published a book called Arithmetical
Book, in which he describes the work of over fifteen hundred mathematicians. This book is
considered the first scientific bibliography.
Bibliography 
O? Conner, JJ. ?Biography of Augustus De Morgan.? 4/24/00
?history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/mathematicians/De_Morgan.html. 
Schultz, Andres Geyer. ?Laws in Prepositional Logic II.? 4/24/00
Aif.wu-wien.ac.at/`geyers/archive.html.
Anonymous. ?Logical Forms and Equivalences.? 4/24/00
csc.tntech.edu/`srini/DM/chapters.html.
Anonymous. ?De Morgan?s Laws.?4/24/00
cs.ru.za/func/boolJava/604f19.html
?De Morgan, Augustus. ?Columbia Encyclopedia Second Edition. 1950, 527.