MANIAC (Mathematical Analyzer Numerical Integrator And Computer). Programmer, operator, and problem analyst Lois Cook-Leurgan examines the main arithmetic unit of the 40-bit IAS type digital computer. This 35 kW, 450 kg, 2400 tube machine played an important part in thermonuclear implosion radiation hydrodynamic calculations of Operation Ivy Mike, the first hydrogen bomb, it was the main reason for building a computer onsite at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico 1952. The lab had a software team of 10 mathematicians and physicists, about half of whom were former female human computers like Mary Tsingou, Verna Ellingson, Elaine Felix, and Marjory Jones. Although most of its time was spent on classified problems, the MANIAC found many unclassified applications. The scientist and programmer Mary Tsingou-Menzel created and wrote the program for the world’s first experiment conducted entirely on a computer, the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou Problem (FPUT) after its creators, the idea was to simulate the 1D analog of atoms in a crystal: a long chain of masses linked by linear springs but with a weak nonlinear term, it was an early step in the development of chaos theory.
