Tonight is the night before all deadlines; the end of Richards Discovering Mathematics module is in less than 24 hours. If you read my first blog post, you will know how much I did not want to do this module, ‘Maths Eugh’. But now, I am honestly gutted that it is finishing. I have enjoyed this module, much more than I thought I ever would. I have learned a lot over the course of the course of the module, and I thank every lecturer who has taken part and taught us all.
For my last blog of the module I have decided to dedicate it to the one and only, the amazing Alan Turing. Ever since I watched ‘The Imitation Game’ I have been fascinated by him. His contribution to breaking the Nazi Enigma code, eventually helped the Allied forces defeat Germany. However, the work that he did for the world was never known until one day a book was uncovered which was written by a former employee, as everything was covered up post war when Churchill ordered that all records of the place be destroyed in a huge bonfire.
The work that was completed during the Second World War at Bletchley Park, Station X, was so secret that none of the 10,000 people working there were able to tell anybody outside of the park what was happening in their day to day jobs. No wives, no husbands, friends or relatives. People were recruited based on their linguistic skills, knowledge of hieroglyphics, or brilliance at chess, in order to gain entry, all were expected to be able to solve the Telegraph crossword in less than six minutes. This is seen in the video below, (P.S I know for a fact that I could never have completed it in less than six minutes – Maybe try six hours more like)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBYkoH2WjTU
The machine created was called an Enigma machine, and it was configured to work in million upon millions of different ways. It was kind of like a massive typewriter that would turn gibberish messages into meaningful sentences, due to this the machines were reset every day to make sure that they worked at decoding the new message’s being sent. Amazingly, they could uncover codes from the battlefields before they even reached Hitler in Berlin!!!
Alan Turing was not the only person to work on the Enigma machine; he was given a team to help him. The team turned out to be extraordinary, and a bit of a weird match but they worked together to crack the codes successfully.
- Hugh Alexander – British chess champion
- Joan Clarke – Codebreaker (seen in the video above)
- Stewart Menzies – Overall charge at Bletchley
- John Cairncross – Spy
- Peter Hilton – Mathematician
- Jack Good – Mathematician
Everyone in the team brought something new to the group, everyone a genius in their own right.
I cannot begin to imagine how differently the world would be, if it not been for Alan and his team working tirelessly at cracking the codes. Many say that because of them the war was lessened by 2 – 4 years. We all owe our thanks to this team of mathematical geniuses, and I for one will never forget what they did for the world.
Following the war, it could be stated that Alan did not have a very happy life following his time at Bletchley Park. He was arrested for ‘gross indecency’ in 1952, and I bet most of you will not be able to work out what is meant by that term? Well he was arrested for his homosexuality. After being taken to court he was placed on a hormone treatment course in the hope that this would solve his ‘issue’. For this failure of mankind, I am sorry. This man helped save all of our lives, shorten the war and bring home all of our men in a spectacular way, a mathematical genius way, and in return we ruined his. He committed suicide in 1954.
If this has shocked you, then be prepared to be shocked some more. In 2009 an Internet campaign started asking that then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, make an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way in which Alan Turing was treated by the government that he aided, and was then failed by personally. This continued until 2013 when Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon.
I cannot speak on behalf of every person who will ever read this blog, but I know that I will always look up to Alan for what he and his team managed to accomplish, . I do not think that I will ever do anything that could even begin to compare to what they did for the world, but what I have managed to accomplish over the course of this module is special to me. Personally, I have been able to develop an understanding of fundamental maths, how and why we need maths and how it works within wider society. I may have started this module uninterested by mathematics and its role in society, but now Tara and Richard, I feel that you can both count me in as a lover of mathematics. Thank you.
If you have not seen the movie yet and I have managed to convince you to go and watch, then great!! If I have not then here is a little push,
Video 1 found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBYkoH2WjTU
Video 2 found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2jRs4EAvWM
Image found at: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/08/the-imitation-game-review-script-fails-to-sizzle
Further information on Alan Turing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/z8bgr82
