the mathematical theory of communication

Shannon's childhood hero was Thomas Edison, who he later learned was a distant cousin. While growing up, he also worked as a messenger for the Western Union company. At home, he constructed such devices as models of planes, a radio-controlled model boat and a barbed-wire telegraph system to a friend's house a half-mile away. His best subjects were science and mathematics. Shannon showed an inclination towards mechanical and electrical things.

Most of the first 16 years of Shannon's life were spent in Gaylord, where he attended public school, graduating from Gaylord High School in 1932. Shannon's family was active in their Methodist Church during his youth. was a descendant of New Jersey settlers, while Mabel was a child of German immigrants. His mother, Mabel Wolf Shannon (1890–1945), was a language teacher, who also served as the principal of Gaylord High School. (1862–1934), was a businessman and for a while, a judge of probate in Gaylord.

The Shannon family lived in Gaylord, Michigan, and Claude was born in a hospital in nearby Petoskey. Shannon contributed to the field of cryptanalysis for national defense of the United States during World War II, including his fundamental work on codebreaking and secure telecommunications.

Īs a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he wrote his thesis demonstrating that electrical applications of Boolean algebra could construct any logical numerical relationship. ' A Mathematical Theory of Communication'Ī Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching CircuitsĬlaude Elwood Shannon (Ap– February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist and cryptographer known as the 'father of information theory'.

The mathematical theory of communication