Talk:A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits

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It might be worth mentioning why the publication date is listed as 1940 even though the text states the thesis is from 1937. AFAIK several of Shannon's papers from this period were embargoed during the war, but why this one? --Ott2 21:35, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The thesis must have been written in 1937. I have added a citation of the published paper, from 1938. After the war he published a notable related paper:

In edit mode you can see that there is a comment in the article giving a later citation to the MIT thesis with a date of 1940, perhaps when it was accessioned, but the publication date of 1938 still holds. --AJim (talk) 01:14, 24 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A quote that may serve as a reference for the second paragraph:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/shannon.html

Fifth paragraph:

After receiving BS degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1936, he came to MIT as a graduate student. As a part-time job, he worked on Professor Vannevar Bush's differential analyzer. His master's thesis, "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits," used Boolean algebra--in which problems are solved by manipulating two symbols, 1 and 0--to establish the theoretical underpinnings of digital circuits. This work was the beginning of modern switching theory. Harvard University Professor Howard Gardner called it "possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.159.7.119 (talk) 21:55, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]