Introduction
After several decades of development, computers have changed a lot. Nowadays, it is quite hard to work without any assistance of computers in most areas, even some traditional fields, such as agriculture, tourism, education etc. A computer is defined as “a general-purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically” (“Computer,” 2015). In other words, it is a device which can solve some sort of problems through calculating data or taking statistics.
The history of
Computers can not only bring us a great diversity of benefit. However, on the other hand, there are still quite a few people insist some negative points that computers made our world more complicated, or we
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ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7200 crystal diodes, 1500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and approximately 5,000,000 hand-soldered joints. It weighed more than 30 short tons (27 t), was roughly 2.4m × 0.9m × 30m (8 × 3 × 100 feet) in size, occupied 167m2 (1800 ft2) and consumed 150 kW of electricity (“Computer,” 2015). This computer can calculate more than 5000 simple addition or subtraction operations in one second. It means ENIAC was better than last generation of computer one thousand times, or manual calculation two hundred thousand times.
Background
The idea of developing an electronic computer was generated during the World War II. At that time, every country was busy with researching new strategic weapons and equipment. Therefore, producing new types of airplanes and artilleries tended to be more and more significant and necessary. For this reason, the Ordnance Department of US Army set up a "Ballistic Research Laboratory" in Aberdeen, Maryland. The US military required that the lab needed to provide six firing tables of Army artillery units daily in order to identify the development of missile technology. Although it was just six firing tables, they needed a staggering amount of work. As a matter of fact, each table must calculate hundreds of shooting ballistic, and each model of trajectory is a set of very complex nonlinear equations. These equations are no way to find the exact solution, it can only be calculated approximately by
Currently, computers are used for everything in life. For example, from researching for a large essay project to playing video games with friends. “From the outset, computers were weighed for both military and commercial significance, and hence they straddled the very institutional boundaries that central to this study. It is also significant that computers became valuable research instruments in nearly all disciplines.” (Akera, 2). The first digital computer was constructed in 1946 by John Mauchly, a professor, and Presper Eckert, an inventor. “They met by chance in 1941 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Engineering. They soon developed a revolutionary vision: to use electricity as a means of computing--in other words, to make electricity "think."” (McCartney, 1). They were ignored by their colleagues, but in 1943 they were becoming more well known and was funded by the U.S Army. The U.S Army was seeking for a contraption that can quickly calculate ballistic missile trajectories in wartime Europe and Africa (McCartney, 1). John Mauchly and Presper Eckert led a team that constructed the computer that occupied 1,800 square feet and weighed thirty tons. They named the large computer, ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The process of building this machine was not an effortless task, Mauchly and Presper and their team had to overcome many problems
In 1937, J.V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University, attempts to build the first computer without gears, cams, belts, and shafts. Then, in 1941 Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford berry, design a computer that can solve 29 equations simultaneously. This is the first computer that can store information on its main memory.
There have been many advances since the initial invention of the computer fifty years ago. Today, computers operate many of the things that we use in everyday life. Some examples of these things are farm machinery, cars, planes, video games, heat and water delivery to our homes, banking, billing, and even the stock market. The advances of the computer have resulted in the
I. Computer 's are an integral part of our daily lives. Just about anywhere you go, a computer is present. Hospitals, banks, even the gas pump you frequent, relies on computer 's to figure out how much gas you pump, how much it is per gallon, and where to get that money from. As you can see from this line graph, computer 's are in more demand than ever peaking at 350 million sold in a year. (Computer Sales Statistics)
Now a day computer is one of the most important things that people usually need. People don't mind the effects of using a computer, whether it is bad or good. There are some advantages and disadvantages of using computers. According to Khan, J. (2013) Computer changes the way of life, it affects every field of life. It is use to make a different task lighter. In addition, it saves time and effort and reduces the overall cost to complete a particular task. While on the other hand computer also has disadvantages. It increases the number of those
People in the United States were starting to invent gadgets to make life easier. In 1945, one of the main inventions was a computer named ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer). This was a huge step for the United States, and it allowed new technology to be made that could not be before. The ENIAC was a giant computer that stood two stories tall and weighed thirty tons. This super computer was a secret military project during World War II that was carried out by Jon Mauchly and John Presper Eckert Junior. ENIAC was invented to speed up the mathematical calculations that were needed to make ballistic firing tables for the Army and to design atomic weaponry. This super computer could add 5,000 numbers in one second. This might not seem like very fast compared to today’s technology, but this was a 1,000 times faster than any machine at this time.
Once the Allies triumphantly claimed victory 1945, advancements in computers dwindled. It was only in 1958, thirteen years later, that the computing
Modern life is virtually dependent on computers and these points to the huge impacts computers have on modern life. Computers are used in many different areas such as in business, design, medicine, military amongst other a multifunctional roles. One of the greatest leaps in development of human beings has been because of the widespread usage of computers. In fact, the computer is the single greatest piece of technology in the 20th century and as such, they have been associated with certain social impacts. Modern life has borne the brunt of the benefits and negative impacts the usage of computers have impacted the world. The social impacts have been magnanimous across a variety of aspects such as; health, communication, social
The inchoate stages of the computer were revolutionary, but impractical. The first computer “filled a room and took an army of technicians to maintain” (Economist). While scientists speculated about the myriad possibilities with the creation of the computer, the realization still seemed years away. The problem was recognized as a “tyranny of numbers” – the realization of their design would involve “assembling and connecting hundreds or thousands of components by hand, using unreliable solder, and then connecting these dinky little constructions to tens of thousands of light bulbs” (Economist). Of course, Jack Kilby was a step ahead. Previously, computers used vacuum tubes that, in addition to being rather large, were somewhat unreliable. Kilby was well versed in the physics of
we live in a generation when we have made amazing progress in terms of mathematics,
Charles Babbage is recognized as “The Father of Computing”. He developed the concept of a digital programmable computer. Charles contrived the concept called the Analytical Engine and it hailed as the first general-purpose computer concept. The Analytical Engine serves to be the signature of computer technology; nevertheless, this computer concept was the evolution that began the inventions of computers. Whereas the 1st generation of computers served in the early 19th century, it expanded throughout the generations; thus, evolving into computers people know today. In the 21st century not computers, but technology itself are highly known to be used everywhere. The advancement of technology within the 21st century does not just go into using computers; furthermore, it goes to using cell phones, tablets, pcs, laptops, desktops, wearable devices, such as smartwatches and activity trackers, etc. Computers are disbursed within workplaces, such as colleges, high schools, and even hospitals.
The key period of the evolution of modern electronic computer is in between the late 1930s and the early 1950s. Not all of them were invented by the mathematician or physician. Among those machines were pioneering computers put together by english academics notably Manchester/Ferrenti Mark 1, built at Manchester University by Frederic Williams and Thomas Kilburn. And the EDSAC, Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator built by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University.
A computer is one of the most brilliant inventions of mankind. Thanks to computer technology, we were able to achieve storage and processing of huge amounts of data; we could rest our brains by employing computer memory capacities for storage of information. Owing to computers, we have been able speed up daily work, carry out critical transactions and achieve accuracy and precision at work. Computers of the earlier times were of the size of a large room and were required to consume huge amounts of electric power. However, with the advancing technology, computers have shrunk to the size of a small watch. Depending on the processing power and size of computers, they have been classified under various types. Let us look at the classification
Computers have impacted themselves into our lives. According to (Chapman), they 're what we use as the regular representation of the pushed world. Meanwhile, the history and movement of machines are selecting headway upgrades that are settling to shield and also gets, a great deal of this data. However, in the 1800s Charles Babbage created vital computers.
Computer era (century) has come very fast. Only a couple of decades ago, the first computers were developed and changed the ways of billions of people