From Boole…to Google?
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Happy Birthday, George Boole
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Born in England on this day in 1815, Boole grew up to become a mathematician. He came up with a kind of algebra we now call Boolean Algebra. The three most common operations of this kind of algebra are still used today in logic systems and even in Google searches:
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AND
OR and
NOT.
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Boole did not create the first computer. However, in hindsight he has been called the founder of computer science. Here’s why:
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In the 1930s an American named Claude Shannon and a Russian named Victor Shestakov both (separately) realized that Boolean Algebra could be used with electrical switches. Each switch has only two states: On and Off, or True and False, 1 and 0. The AND, OR, and NOT functions can be made into logic gates that serve as the foundation for the digital revolution.
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Let’s see how Boolean logic works. Say there are a lot of foods on a table: a ham sandwich, a green apple, a brownie, a banana, an orange, an Oreo cookie, a yellow cookie decorated with yellow frosting, and a white container full of plain yogurt. Which foods would you get with the following “searches”?
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fruit AND yellow
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fruit OR yellow
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NOT fruit
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NOT yellow
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fruit NOT yellow
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yellow NOT fruit
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ANSWERS: 1.banana 2.apple, banana, and orange 3.sandwich, brownie, both cookies, yogurt 4.sandwich, apple, brownie, orange, Oreo, yogurt 5.apple and orange 6.yellow cookie
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Learn more
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- Here is a guide to how Boolean terms can focus or widen a search using a search engine.
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- I tried using the Boolean terms with Google and immediately realized that NOT doesn’t work. Instead, I found out, you type a minus sign immediately before the term you want to exclude. Also, to be recognized as the OR operator, you have to type capital letters OR.
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- The web search tool Boolify makes it very clear which operator you are using.
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