Ada Lovelace IQ

Ada Lovelace's IQ is estimated at 135 to 155. She was never tested; the estimate rests on her 1843 Notes, which include the first published computer program.

Ada Lovelace's IQ is 145. What's yours?

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Portrait of Ada Lovelace

Key facts

Estimated IQ
IQ 145
Range
IQ 135 to IQ 155
Known for
First published computer program
Lived
Mathematician (Early Computing), 1815–1852
Basis
Documented writing (1843 Notes); no test
Confidence
Low. Ada Lovelace died in 1852. No IQ test result exists.

Lovelace's 1843 Notes show original thinking about what computers could do. 145 is an estimate based on that record, not a score.

What was Ada Lovelace's IQ?

Lovelace never took an IQ test, and no historiometric study rates her. LifeScore uses 145 as an estimate, with a range of 135 to 155, based on her 1843 Notes on the Analytical Engine, which contain what is often called the first published computer program.

What did Ada Lovelace invent?

She did not invent a machine. Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine. Lovelace translated a paper about it and added her own Notes, including a step-by-step method for computing Bernoulli numbers and the idea that such a machine could process music or symbols, not just numbers.

How smart was Ada Lovelace?

  1. 01

    Note G

    Her table of steps for computing Bernoulli numbers is often called the first published program.
  2. 02

    Beyond numbers

    She wrote that the engine might compose music if the rules of harmony were expressed in its notation.
  3. 03

    Notes longer than the paper

    Her Notes on Menabrea's article ran to about three times the length of the original.
  4. 04

    Serious mathematics

    She studied calculus by correspondence with Augustus De Morgan.

How Ada Lovelace thought

Lovelace called her approach 'poetical science': using imagination to see what a machine might do, then working through the details. She saw that a machine that manipulates numbers could manipulate anything numbers can stand for.

The evidence behind the estimate

An estimate built from the historical record, not a recovered test score.

What supports it

  • Her Note G set out a step-by-step method for the Analytical Engine to calculate Bernoulli numbers, often called the first published computer program.
  • She argued the engine could work on symbols other than numbers, such as music, a leap beyond Babbage's own framing.
  • She studied advanced mathematics by correspondence with Augustus De Morgan.

What it cannot prove

  • Historians still debate how much of the mathematics in the Notes was hers and how much was Babbage's.
  • Her output was small because she died at 36.
  • No psychometric record exists.

Ada Lovelace compared with Turing, Noether, Marie Curie

FigureEstimateRange
Ada Lovelace145135–155
Alan Turing170+155–180
Emmy Noether170+155–180
Marie Curie150140–160

Psychological profile

Ada Lovelace's IQ is represented here by a retrospective estimate of 145, not a verified test result. Ada Lovelace is best known for exceptional systems thinking. The useful question is what the surviving evidence shows, not whether a precise modern score can be recovered.

High openness and symbolic reasoning. Saw systems as executable abstractions: imagination fused with mathematics.

The dominant archetype here is The Visionary. This archetype shapes decision patterns: what feels natural, what creates friction, and what blind spots tend to emerge.

Estimated IQ is 145. This is a rough estimate based on documented accomplishments and contemporary accounts, not a literal measurement.

Key traits

  1. Systems Thinking

    Ada displayed notable systems thinking, a trait that shaped their approach to challenges and opportunities.

  2. Imagination

    Ada displayed notable imagination, a trait that shaped their approach to challenges and opportunities.

  3. Abstraction

    Ada displayed notable abstraction, a trait that shaped their approach to challenges and opportunities.

One thing most people do not know

The programming language Ada, developed for the US Department of Defense, is named after her.

A modern parallel

If Ada Lovelace were alive today, a modern parallel in operating style might be Fei-Fei Li. The comparison is about working style, strengths and blind spots, not accomplishment level or IQ.

Ada Lovelace: common questions

Was Ada Lovelace a genius?

Ada's record supports exceptional achievement, but "genius" is not established by an unverified IQ number. Their The Visionary archetype, combined with Systems Thinking and Imagination, is a more useful interpretation of their output.

What personality type was Ada Lovelace?

Ada fits the The Visionary archetype. Key traits include Systems Thinking, Imagination, and Abstraction. This profile helps explain both their strengths and their documented failure modes.

Who is the modern equivalent of Ada Lovelace?

A modern parallel in working style is Fei-Fei Li. The comparison is based on operating style and the The Visionary archetype, not on accomplishment level or IQ.

What can we learn from Ada Lovelace?

Ada's profile teaches that extreme strengths create extreme trade-offs. Their Systems Thinking and Imagination enabled success but also created recurring friction.

Ada Lovelace's IQ is 145. What's yours?

Ada Lovelace's estimate comes from the historical record. Yours can come from a real test: 25 visual reasoning questions.

Take the IQ test

25 questions · about 12 minutes

Sources

  1. Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with notes by the translator, Fourmilab (full text). Menabrea's paper with Lovelace's Notes A to G, including the Bernoulli number table.
  2. Ada Lovelace, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Biography covering her education and work with Charles Babbage.
  3. Cox, C. M. (1926). The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses. Stanford University Press.
  4. Simonton, D. K. (2009). Genius 101. Springer.
  5. Cattell, R. B. (1971). Abilities: Their Structure, Growth, and Action. Houghton Mifflin.
  6. Portrait: Margaret Sarah Carpenter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Last reviewed September 2026. How we estimate historical IQ