Object Details
Description
This red, cloth-covered paper box holds a set of 272 punched cards as well as two punch cards which have not been punched. On the top row of each card is printed, the exclusion modulus, the quadratic character of m (R for residual or N for nonresidual) and the value of a/m. A small gray pamphlet fits in the box with the stencils. The cards were published by the University of California Press.
Raphael Robinson used these punched cards for his research in number theory before World War II. His interest in using devices to solve problems in number theory continued after the war. In 1952, he programmed the SWAC omputer at UCLA's Institute for numberical Analysis to calculate Mersenne primes, finding the first Mersenne primes discovered useing a computer. Several of his later papers also made use of computers.
Reference:
"Recent Mathematical Tables," Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation, vol. 2 #15, July, 1946, p. 124-125. This is a review by D. H. Lehmer. It is numbered 305 [F, Z].
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Transfer from Smithsonian Institution Libraries
date made
1940
ID Number
1991.0287.01
catalog number
1991.0287.01
accession number
1991.0287
Object Name
Punch Cards, Set Of
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 6.7 cm x 20.2 cm x 9.5 cm; 2 5/8 in x 7 15/16 in x 3 3/4 in
place made
United States: California, Berkeley
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Punch Cards
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_694619