Perhaps the earliest device for working out sums was the abacus. This began as a clay tablet into which grooves were cut. Pebbles were then placed or taken away from grooves to perform addition and subtraction. (Our word calculation comes from the Latin word calculus meaning 'pebble').
Because the pebbles were likely to become mislaid, they were later replaced by beads threaded on to wires and mounted in a frame. By moving the beads backwards and forwards, addition, subtraction, division and multiplication could be done. In 1614 John Napier, an astronomer, invented a ready-reckoned, known as Napier's bones, to help him make complex calculations accurately. From this was developed in 1621 the earliest form of the slide rule.
The first
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These circuits are mainly used for solving a wide variety of complex engineering problems, like investigation of stresses in aircraft, ships and large engineering structures. They can also be used to simulate and set up models of complex installations and study the effect of various operational factors on the complex installations.
They can for example, be used to simulate the behavior of an aircraft in response to the actions of crew members. Using analog computers, apparent equipment failures or other emergencies can be introduced for proper training of the crew. The first automatic analog computer designed to solve complex differential equations, was described in detail in 1876 by the English Scientist William Thomson.
Digital Computers: These are used in commerce and industry for extensive arithmetical calculations which would otherwise require enormous clerical effort. Such computers carry out mathematical operations with the variables expressed in the computer as numbers, usually in the binary system (given below).
These numbers are recorded in the computer electronically, as a series of temporary magnets, each magnetized in one of the two possible directions. The two magnetization direction corresponds two numbers of the binary system.
The first electronic digital computer, known as the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer or NIIAC was developed at the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 by
The first generation of electronic computers was characterized by hulking monstrosities of tubes and wires, housed in metal. The first programmable electronic computer was Colossus. Completed in 1943, Colossus contained
In 1942, John P. Eckert, John W. Mauchley, and their associates at the University of Pennsylvania decided to build a high-speed electronic computer to do the job. This machine became known as ENIAC, for Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator. It could multiply two numbers at the rate of 300 products per second, by finding the value of each product from a multiplication table stored in its memory. ENIAC was thus about 1,000 times faster than the previous generation of computers. It used 18,000 standard vacuum tubes, occupied 1800 square feet of floor space, used about 180,000 watts of electricity, and used punch card input and output. The ENIAC was very difficult to program because one had to essentially re-wire it to perform whatever task the computer was required to do (Bellis). It was, however, efficient in handling the particular programs for which it had been designed. ENIAC is generally accepted as the first successful high-speed electronic digital computer and was used in many applications from 1946 to 1955.
What makes the ENIAC the first “digital” or personal computer is the fact that it had a central programming unit that would determine which accumulators to activate and what to do with their outputs. This central programming unit used repeating loops so that different units of the ENIAC could work at
The history of the computer goes back hundreds of years. From the abacus through the modern era the evolution of computers has involved many innovative individuals. It was out of this desire to innovate many fascinating tabulating machines developed. The modern computer, therefore, evolved from an amalgamation of the genius of many individuals over a long period of history. Many people shaped the world by making the efforts to develop technology.
The first computer became the foundation of all computer development and innovations were created afterwards to support and improve upon it. According to the article “ENIAC” from World of Inventions, the first computer that required the use of electricity was called ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) and it was designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly during World War II (“ENIAC”). Eckert and Mauchly’s ENIAC “contained 18,000 vacuum tubes and required 160,000 watts of power. It weighed thirty tons, and took up over 1,500 square feet” (“ENIAC”). In “The Development of Computer Assisted Mathematics” in Science and Its Times, ENIAC was built to use numbers to describe the behavior of explosives, high performance aircraft, and the weather (“Mathematics”). Even though ENIAC’s main use was for military purposes, it can also make meteorology calculations and help with nuclear weapons research (“ENIAC”). According to Brian Overland, a professional programmer of the C family of languages, “electronic . . . made it possible to use wires and vacuum tubes to stimulate logical operations,” and allowed for the use of wires and vacuum
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist and philosopher. Although Blaise devoted most of his adult life to philosophy and religion, he has an amazing aptitude in mathematics and science. Pascal started his prolific string of revolutionary inventions when he was just a teenager. In 1642, at just the age of 18, Pascal invented the Pascaline, an early form of the calculator - which was inspired by the idea of making his father 's job of calculating taxes easier. The Pascaline was a numerical wheel calculator with eight moveable dials that added up to eight figured long sums and used base ten. When the first dial moved ten notches - the second dial moved one notch to represent the ten 's column reading of 10, and when the ten dial
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
A mathematician named Brahmagupta attempted to create arithmetic rules involving zero and negative numbers. Rules like this one “The sum of zero and a negative number is negative, the sum of a positive number and zero is positive, the sum of zero and zero is zero.” He was one of the first men to work and create rules about zero that we use today.
The general function of the early computer device earliest computing devices designed to aid numeric computation.Abacus, first developed in Babylonia over 5,000 years ago. An Abacus a device of making arithmetic calculation, consisting of a frame se with rods on which balls or beads are moved. The Abacus was invented between 300-500 BC. The Abacus was used to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.also be used to extract square-roots and cube roots. The beads are manipulated with either the index finger or the thumb of one hand. The NAPIER RODS was invented by John Napier. It was invented
First what is a computer? A computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem. Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit that can
Simple ascertaining gadgets initially showed up in olden times and mechanical computing helps were created in the seventeenth century. The initially recorded utilization of the expression "machine" is likewise from the seventeenth century, connected to human machines, individuals who performed counts, frequently as vocation. The main machine gadgets were thought about in the nineteenth century, and just rose in their current structure in the 1940s. The primary advanced machines were produced between 1940 to 1945. Charles Babbage is the Father of the Computer. In 1941 Konrad Zuse, created "Z3", the first current registering machine. Konrad Zuse is viewed as "the innovator of machines". ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator & Computer) was the first US-fabricated electronic machine. ENIAC was created by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. The world 's initially put away program machine was "Manchester Baby" created in 1948 (Misenbergas, K.2008). The "Manchester Baby" was a little scale trial machine created in Victoria college of Manchester. In the first era of machines, Computers were assembled with vacuum tubes. In 1957, FORTRAN (Formula Translator) was presented. Machines were manufactured with Transistors in the second era of machines. In the third
abacus (4000 years ago to 1975) Used by merchants throughout the ancient world. Beads represent figures (data); by moving the beads according to rules, the user can add, subtract, multiply, or divide. The abacus remained in use until a worldwide deluge of cheap pocket calculators put the abacus out of work, after being used for thousands of years.
Instead of needing the operator to apply algorithms to perform calculations as was the case with manual calculators, a mechanical calculator implemented algorithms autonomously. The operator entered the numbers for the calculations and pulled a lever/turned a wheel and the calculation would be carried out. Mechanical calculators were developed in 1623, one of them was called Shickard’s calculator, which contained a series of interlocking gears. It had ten spokes and each spoke on a gear represented a digit. Each time that the gear made one complete revolution, it moved on to the next gear which was one notch to the left in order to “carry the one”. Moving on to 1642, Blaise Pascal developed what was known as the pascaline. A pascaline was a mechanical device that was used for both addition and subtraction as well as division and multiplication. Gottfried Whilhelm von Leibniz created a similar calculator in 1673. In 1820, however, Thomas de Colmar’s Arithmometer was the first mass produced mechanical calculator. Soon, calculators wouldn’t need human power in order to operate.
"The first complex computer was ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer/Calculator" (Lewis 17). This computer was so big that it took up a large room. ENIAC was invented by Presper Eckert, John W. Maulchy, and their associates. ENIAC was created during World War II, it was used to calculate movement and strategies for the military during the war. It was very helpful for America during World War II.
Charles Babbage created the automated calculator, the first of its kind, named the Analytical Engine. From the time he was an adolescent to his death, he was