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HIS with Trudel > Information revolution > Flashcards

Information revolution Flashcards

1
Q

What are Neil Postman’s five ideas about technological change?

A

1) We always pay a price for new technollgy
2) There are always specific winners and losers
3) A social, political, or cognitive prejudice is embedded in every great technology
4) Technological change is ecological
5) Technology tends to become mythic

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2
Q

What were the first “computers?”

A

Humans who performed intricate calculations

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3
Q

What was the computus?

A

Calculations used by European monks to calculate the date for easter, according to a fairly complex algorithm.

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4
Q

Up to the 18th century, computationally challenging problems occurred from which domain of study? For what?

A

Astronomy
(For dating, time-keeping, or navigation)

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5
Q

Why was early computing difficult in Astronomy?

A

Problems either were complex with many different operations or involved massive repetition

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6
Q

How long did the calculation of the return of Halley’s Comet take for 3 people?

A

18 months.

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7
Q

What four operations to break down a problem became commonplace by the end of the 18th century?

A

Addition subtraction, multiplication, and division

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8
Q

Up until the 20th century, human computers were equipped with what?

A

Instructions, paper and ink, log and trig tables, and occasionally adding machines in the 20th century.

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9
Q

Which demographics were human calculators usually?

A

Varied backgrounds. Could be apprentices, street urchins, convicts; many were women for reasons similar to them being telephone operators. Calculators were generally poorly paid

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10
Q

How long could an experienced human calculator multiply two ten-digit numbers?

A

10 to 12 seconds.

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11
Q

How long (total time) was an experienced human calculator expected to take for each operation on average? What explains the difference between that and the calculation?

A

72 seconds. Allow additional time to consult tables or write and copy results.

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12
Q

How many operations was a human calculator expected to conduct in a day?

A

about 400

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13
Q

How fast could the earliest electronic computers multiply two 10-digit numbers?

A

0.003 seconds

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14
Q

At the University of Toronto was the head of the new (1960s) department responsible for making and operating computers called?

A

“Chief computer”

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15
Q

When were logarithms developed? By whom?

A

1614 by John Napier

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16
Q

Beyond the abacus, slide rules, or other counting aids, when were the first calculating machines built?

A

17th century

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17
Q

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)’s machine could do what operations?

A

Add and subtract

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18
Q

G. W Leibnitz (1646-1716)’s machine could do which operations

A

Add, subtract, multiply, divide

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19
Q

Leibniz in 1676 described a machine which could solve what? Why?

A

Algebraic equations. He believed in the importance of mechanizing calculations.

20
Q

Leibniz developed what which simplified Mathematical operations?

A

1) pioneered modern calculus notation
2) Developed the study of series

21
Q

French mechanic Charles X THomas’s arithometer (1855) was what kind of machine?

A

A calculating machine

22
Q

The arithometer could do what?

A

multiply two 15-digit numbers

23
Q

How may digits could Charles X Thomas’s first machine produce?

A

up to six

24
Q

One of the immediate predecessors of Charles X Thomas’s machine could multiply two 8-digit numbers in __ seconds

A

18

25
Q

One of the immediate predecessors of Charles X Thomas’s machine find the square root of a 15-digit number in __ seconds

A

75

26
Q

How did the arithometer did rise to commercially useful calculators>

A

Basically only by showing the way

27
Q

When did the race to patent improvements to calculating machines take off in the United States?

A

late 19th century

28
Q

What was the ancestor of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company known as until 1905?

A

American Arithometer Company

29
Q

Who founded the American Arithometer Company?

A

William S. Burroughs

30
Q

When was the census tabulator invented? By who?

A

1884 by engineer Herman Hollerith

31
Q

What was the problem with data compiling in the 1880 census?

A

Hand-tallying took years. It was feared it would not be done before the 1900 census. The headcount alone took months. Processing data by had was also prone to many errors.

32
Q

How did Hollerith’s machine work

A

It dropped pins through holes in punched cards, touching individual cups of mercury to complete electrical circuits that spun the counting dials.

33
Q

How many cards did the 56 census tabulators ordered by the government process? at what speed?

A

62 million cards at a rate of 1000 cards per hour per machine.

34
Q

How fast was the us census’s headcount finished with Hollerith’s machine?

A

6 weeks

35
Q

What US company began making commercial calculators to reproduce the success of the Arithmometer?

A

The American Arithmometer Company founded by William S. Burroughs

36
Q

What European mathematician came up with a key design for mechanical calculators that influenced inventors down to the 19th century? What was this concept?

A

Gottfried Leibniz–used a stepped wheel

37
Q

Why did data processing for the 1880 census take nearly as long and cost more than the previous census tallied by hand?

A

Census staff took advantage of the technology to conduct a more detailed and thorough analysis of the raw data

38
Q

What was Hollerith’s company called? What did it eventually merge into in 1911, which changed its name to what?

A

-Tabulating Machine Compay
-Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
-IBM

39
Q

What was the census tabulator useful for?

A

sorting through vast quantities of cards

40
Q

Who pointed the way forward to the modern computer? When?

A

Charles Babbage (1792-1871) in the early 19th century

41
Q

Charles Babbage made what?

A

the Difference Engine

42
Q

What was the Difference Engine designed to do?

A

Produce tables of numbers and typeset them to reduce the risk of errors in calculation and copying.

43
Q

Why did Babbage lose control over existing parts and specially designed tools in the construction?

A

He had a dispute with the machines who worked on the production of the Difference Engine

44
Q

After the loss of his difference engine, Babbage envisioned what?

A

A calculating machine he called an analytical engine

45
Q

What was the concept of the analytical engine? What components did it entail?

A

A machine which incorporated elements of the architecture of programmable computers
1) An input decice
2) A processor or number calculator
3) A control unit built to direct the assigned task and the sequence of calculations
4) A storage unit to hold the number in wast for processing
5) An output device

46
Q

Who continued the development of mechanical computers after Babbage was unable to finance his?

A

A Swedish printer named George Scheutz and his son

HIS with Trudel (17 decks)

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