Interactive Murals

The portrait of Alan Turing - as part of the Famous Mathematicians Mural at Sackville School. Alan Turing A successful Computer Scientist and Cryptanalyst during the war, Turing was instrumental in breaking the German encryptions while working for the British Foreign office. He also devised the ‘Delilah machine’ which could securely encode voice messages. [36] FACT: Turing also wrote papers on Artificial Intelligence and developed the Turing test which is used to evaluate a computers ‘intelligence’ even to this day.

The portrait of Ada Lovelace - as part of the Famous Mathematicians Mural at Sackville School. Ada Lovelace is Famous for writing about the ‘analytical engine’, (the earliest prototype for a digital computer!) Her notes included the possibility of integrating & differentiating functions numerically and symbolically. Her writing anticipated future developments, including computer-generated music. [39] FACT: Ada was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron. Fearing that Ada would inherit her father's volatile 'poetic' temperament, her mother raised her under a strict regimen of science, logic, and mathematics.

The portrait of al-Khwarizmi - as part of the Famous Mathematicians Mural at Sackville School. Al-Khwarizmi was a court Astronomer and scholar at the ‘House of Wisdom’ (an important library and research academy) in Baghdad. He popularised the use of Hindu numerals (1, 2, 3…) in the place of Roman numerals (I,II, III, IV, V…) and emphasised that the purpose of his ‘al-jabr’ book was to serve the practical needs of the people concerning matters of inheritance, legacies, partition and commerce. [66] FACT: The word ‘algorithm’ derives from his name and ‘ Algebra’ from the Arabic Al-jabr translated as ‘completion’ (regarding formulae using letters).

The portrait of Pythagoras - as part of the Famous Mathematicians Mural at Sackville School. Pythagoras was the passionate leader of ‘Pythagoreanism’ a pre-socratic religious and philosophical school that made developments in astronomy, mathematics, and music theories. The Pythagorean theorem a²+b²=c² is credited to his name, as is the ‘Tetractys’ a triangular symbol with 10 points, thought to symbolise space, the elements and the rhythms of the universe. FACT: the Pythagoreans were one of the few ancient schools to treat men & women equally.