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Professor George Forsythe, Founder and First Chairman of the Stanford CSD
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Display of Forsythe PhD student's names in front of Polya Hall
Polya Hall was first location of CSD. We also display a picture of
Mrs. Forsythe. On this web page we show also the directory of the Numerical
Analysis Group, after it moved to Serra House for the academic year 1977-78.
(The building has since been
moved to another spot on campus to make space for the heating plant)
(courtesy of Chuck Romine, a grandstudent of Prof. Forsythe and Mike Heath,
a student of Prof. Golub).
The list of Forsythe's students, and their students, is available
at
http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/forsythetree.html.
A list of Golub's students, and their students, is also available
at
http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/golubtree.html.
There are several
other trees,
most still under construction.
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Lightning Calculator [Forsythe] (~1950)
The 7 digit calculator shown here was owned by Prof. Forsythe. It is derived from Blaise Pascal's Pascaline, designed in 1642. Addition is performed by inserting a stylus into the hole of one of the digit wheels, corresponding to the digit value to be added, and turning the wheel to a stop, much like a rotary telephone. The wheels have a carry mechanism to the next digit position.Lightning calculators were produced in Los Angeles, CA since 1908. The model shown is a late model, and features a lever on the right-hand side that allowed the totals to be reset to zero.
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