A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits

by Claude Shannon

This was Claude Shannon's Master's thesis while a student at MIT. Often called the most important Master's thesis ever written it describes the use of symbolic logic in the design and improvement of circuits.

68 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 1940

About the author

Claude Elwood Shannon, Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1940; M.S. Electrical Engineering, MIT, 1937; B.S., Electrical Engineering & Mathematics, University of Michigan, 1936), was a mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer often referred to as "the father of information theory." His Master's Thesis, which went largely unappreciated for years, demonstrated that electrical applications of Boolean algebra could construct any logical, numerical relationship, and thereby solve any problem solvable by Boolean algebra; this eventually provided the underpinning for all digital computing.

Reviews

[Neville Ridley-smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only really read the first 4 pages and then skimmed the rest. Which is enough to see the massive impact this would have had in simplifying circuit design.

Also, in truth, I read the paper, which is an abstract of the full thesis. The paper can be read here: https://paradise.caltech.edu/ist4/lec...