en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the_EDVAC
1 correction found
which was coined by Claude Shannon in 1948
This is wrong: Shannon used the term in 1948, but he explicitly credited the word "bit" to John W. Tukey rather than claiming to have coined it himself.
Full reasoning
The article says the term "bit" "was coined by Claude Shannon in 1948," but Shannon's own 1948 paper does not support that. In A Mathematical Theory of Communication, Shannon wrote that units in base 2 may be called "binary digits, or more briefly bits," and explicitly added that this was "a word suggested by J. W. Tukey." That means Shannon popularized or used the term in that paper, but he did not coin it himself.
Independent secondary sources agree with this reading. IEEE Spectrum's profile of Shannon states that the basic unit of information was one "which John Tukey of Bell Laboratories dubbed ... a bit." So the article's attribution to Shannon is inaccurate: the credit belongs to John W. Tukey, while Shannon's 1948 paper is the famous early published use.
2 sources
- A Mathematical Theory of Communication
Shannon wrote that if base 2 is used, the units may be called "binary digits, or more briefly bits," calling it "a word suggested by J. W. Tukey."
- Claude Shannon: Tinkerer, Prankster, and Father of Information Theory - IEEE Spectrum
IEEE Spectrum says Shannon defined the basic unit of information, "which John Tukey of Bell Laboratories dubbed a binary unit and then a bit."