2nd video- computers Flashcards
What are computers most basic components?
Devices that can be set to on or off
Simply put, a computer does what 3 things?
- takes in info
- processes it
- outputs a result
Hardware vs. Software
Hardware- physical components
Software- digital instructions
During the industrial revolutions, what was heavily relied on to keep track of things in fields like engineering and navigation?
Data Tables, like spreadsheets, they held information about things like tides, gravity, population and more.
Who worked on Data tables?
What was wrong with these tables?
People, they were called “Computers”
The tables were often full of mistakes caused by human error
Charles Babbage
A Smart young man from london said to be “100 years ahead of his time”
How did Babbage show his Brilliance in college?
What college did he go to?
in TRINITY COLLEGE he found tiny errors in many tables
What did Babbage do to help get rid of these errors in data tables?
He came up with plans for the DIFFERENCE ENGINE
Where did Babbage find funds to build his Difference Engine?
-His own personal funds
-15,000 from the gov’t
What caused problems for Babbage when he built his machine
-He was a perfectionist
-stores didn’t carry the precise tools he needed
-He had many critics and practically no investors
Who were Babbage’s enemies
-Critics- said he was taking to long and to much money
-Organ Grinders- He hated their music and tried to have them banished
How well did the first part of the Difference engine work?
What could it do?
- It worked perfectly
-It could solve mathematical equations and answer with 6 digits
What were the two reasons that Babbage lost his financial support?
-He was taking to long & to much money
-He proposed another machine idea
What was Babbages second machine idea?
Who was the only person who could understand it?
-the Analytical Engine- more like a computer - CAME UP WITH AT 43 YEARS OLD
-Ada Lovelace (who Babbage met at a party) could understand it
What was the heart of the Analytical engine called?
What did it do and what could it be compared to?
-The MILL
-Did the CALCULATIONS
-like a CPU or central processing unit
What was the oblong structure in the Analytical engine called?
What did it do and what could it be compared to?
-The STORE
-it HELD THE NUMBERS to be calculated
-like a computer’s MEMORY
How were instructions fed into Babbage’s analytical engine
-Through PUNCH CARDS
Ada Augustus Lovelace
A young Woman who knew of Babbage and understood his genius machines
-she was often called the worlds first programmer because of her intricate descriptions of babbages two machines
How much of Babbage’s machines were done when he died?
What kept his memory alive?
-Only a part of each of them were done
-Ada’s descriptions still live today which stopped babbage from being lost to history
How long before more people had ideas of a programmable computer device after Babbage?
Nearly 100 years
What caused the need for Herman Holerath’s Machine
America’s rapidly growing population caused the need for an instrument to take a more efficient cencus
Herman Hollerith
What did he do before his invention?
What did he invent?
A formerly ‘humorless’ MIT instructor who created a device to read punch cards to count the cencus
When was the contest to creat a machine to document the cencus data done?
1890
How long did it take to tally the population before and after Hollerith’s invention?
Before- 7 years
After- 6 weeks
What was Hollerith’s company called?
The tabulating machine company
(named after his machine)
Who did Hollerith attempt (and fail) to sell his machine to?
The railroad company
-his machine couldn’t keep up with it and he nearly went bankrupt
What did hollerith do after nearly going bankrupt?
He sold his house and pretty much everything to have enough money to FIX HIS MACHINE
- IT WORKED AND THEN HIS COMPANY WAS SAVED AND HE HAD MORE WORK THAN HE COULD HANDLE
Why was hollerith forced to sell shares in his company?
How much money did he gain from this?
-He was diagnosed w/ a heart problem
-He got abt 1 million $
