Alan Mathison Turing: Cracking The Nazi Machine

Turing became alarmed about the war with Germany in the fall of 1937. At the time, Turing spent his time studying and working on a thesis based on the theory of computation and on the hypothetical devices later known as Turing machines. A Turing machine in today’s sense would be a model for a modern computer. Besides the important work with his research, he found time to enjoyably take up the subject of cryptanalysis assuming words would be replaced by numbers eventually to be transmitted on a binary scale: in zeros and ones, on and off, true and false. Turing himself even spent the time building hardware to produce ciphering machines as a hobby while at Princeton. These precursors were a perfect setup for the work he would pursue with the GC&CS and Turing a natural recruit.

What is Enigma? It is a mysterious thing that is hard to understand, even if possible. During World War II, Alan Turing took on the mission to break the code that so many people in Britain thought was impossible. Even though Alan Turing’s childhood was full of misery, he was able to break a seemingly unbreakable code, and became a war hero by saving countless of lives during World War II.

“the keyboard for inputting letters, the scrambler unit for encrypting the letters and the lamp board for displaying the enciphered letters” (Lendl). In order to break the Enigma Machine, the code breakers had to find the daily settings that the German used and understand them. However, it is important to know that Polish cryptographers already broke the Enigma machine in 1932 as Marian Rejewski reconstructed a replica of the Enigma i.e. Bomba machine. However, Turing used Rejewski’s ideas and improved the bombe machine so that the machine could go through all the possible combinations of the Enigma rapidly (Lendl). The polish Bomba inspired Alan Turing for the construction of his own Bombe machine. The Bombe machine was crucial for the breaking of Enigma’s signals. This machine is not considered as a computer and does not perform calculation, but was designed “to carry out a systematic search to determine the following components of an Enigma key: the rotor order, the ‘rotor core starting positions’, and some of the ‘steckers’” (Carter). Due to the work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers, the United Kingdom had access to the German communications and could predict future naval attacks, this allowed the prevention of several

He is known for his contributions to the artificial intelligence and computer science community before it even existed. He is most known for what is now called the "Turing Test" and that is a process of testing an computer's ability to make its own decisions or "think" so to say. A little bit more information on Turing's life is that he dominated the world of technology of the twentieth century and he

In 1925, the Germans decided that they wanted a better way to encrypt their messages for the Army and other militaries. They found the ENIGMA, a machine being produced by the Chiffriermaschinen Aktiengesellschaft Company for encrypting messages in a business setting. (Mowry, 1) The Germany Army got a hold of it and adapted it for their purposes. The machine contained a keyboard with all the letters of the alphabet hooked to three

Ada Lovelace worked with Charles Babbage to develop what would become the first computer by writing the algorithms needed to make computers work. She checked Babbage’s work and found errors in his system, helping to design the computer. Lovelace is considered the first

One of the greatest British war heroes of all time, as well as the creator of the first computer, a math prodigy who also got treated awfully by the society - Alan Turing was born on 23 June 1912 in Maida Vale, London.

Ockham, Surrey County, England, the Summer of 1843. Lady Ada Lovelace frantically prepares her “Notes” to Sir Charles Babbage. This 19,136 words document will hold the first description of the term “computer” a century before this idea will come to fruition.

Turing was born on June 23, 1912 in London. From an early age, it was very apparent that he had a gifted mind and an intense enthusiasm for the math and sciences. In fact, at the age of 16, Turing got to grips with Albert Einstein’s work and extrapolated Einstein’s questioning of Newton’s Laws of Motion from a text in which this was never made explicit. He went on to attend King’s College in Cambridge where he proved the central limit theorem in his dissertation, earning him his fellowship. At 23, Turing published his paper On Computable Numbers and an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem where he outlined the Universal Machine (later known as the Turing Machine), an idealized computing device that is capable of performing any mathematical computation that can be represented as an algorithm. He then went on to study his old love of cryptology (spurred on by the book of his late best friend Christopher in prep school) at Princeton University. There he earned his doctorate and his dissertation, the Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals, introduced original logic and

Bill Gates was born on October 28th, in 1955 as William Henry Gates in Seattle, Washington. He grew up in a middle-class family with an older sister Kristine, and a younger sister named Libby. His father, William H. Gates Sr., was a shy law student who married Gates ' mom, Mary. The Gates family was happy and close, and all three children were pushed to strike for excellence. Gates showed competitiveness intelligence and at an early age. Around 12 years old, his parents became worried about his behavior and took him to another school, Lakeside School. He excelled in nearly all of his classes. Many years later, Gates met Paul Allen, who was two years older. They both became good friends, due to them both being interested in computers. Gates then graduated Lakeside in 1973.

Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Gates began to show interest in computers at the age of 13 at the Lakeside Private School. He pursued his passion thought college. Going out on his own with his friend and business partner Paul Allen, Gates found himself at the right place at the right time. While technology was advancing, he built the world’s largest software business, Microsoft. While doing so… he became the world’s richest man.

The Bombe, made by Alan Turing was a more propelled adaptation of the Polish Bomba that was likewise worked to decipher German Nazi codes in Poland. The movie never addressed mathematician Gordon Welchman, which was Turing's in making the Bombe (Bletchley Park: Code-breaking's Forgotten Genius). The Bombe has really been worked by five code breakers not simply Turing. The film just specified Alan Turing's name.

Turing’s machine used a continuous tape, which can be as long as required, which carries a series of cells. This passes under a read/write head that can read and if required change the symbol under it. The head views one symbol at a time and, can:

Charles Babbage was a mathmetician, inventor, and philosopher who was credited with creating the first form of a sophisticated computer. While mechanical computing machines had been developed in the past, none had the capability of simulating human mental functions. Babbage’s difference engine and analytical engine paved the way for modern artificial intelligence. His machine was capable of not only solving mathematical functions, but it also could play chess, checkers, and other games. Babbage’s invention of the “difference engine” is often noted as the beginning of the age of artificial intelligence.

Alan Turing – (1912-1954) A British mathematician educated at Cambridge and Princeton universities. He introduced the concept of a theoretical computing device when his published the paper named "On Computable Numbers" in 1936. Turing was a pioneer working in computer theory; he expanded his research studying artificial intelligence and biological forms.