Social Science Section 1 Flashcards
What was Charles Babbage’s Machine called?
The Difference Engine
Who was considered to be the first computer programmer?
Ada Lovelace
What is the telegram
Messages sent through electrical pulses via railway lines
What was Hilbert’s Entscheidungsproblem?
Proposed question of “Is it possible to create an algorithm that will prove any logical statement true or false?”
Which theoretical device has the characteristics of a modern computer?
Alan Turing’s “Turing Machine”
What is said to be the mother of invention?
Necessity
How did the Industrial Revolution and increase population growth affect works?
Out of necessity, they needed to be more efficient and specialized
What book did Adam Smith write in 1776?
The Wealth of Nations
How does Smith’s The Wealth of Nations demonstrate that workers needed to be more specialized and efficient?
Through his example of manufacturing pins– he compares the slow process of a single craftsman manufacturing compared to many less specialized people working to make the pin so there is less expensive labour
Who inspired Charles Babbage?
Gaspard de Pronv
What is the “method of differences”?
Developed by Gaspard de Pronv; he broke down the process of calculating logarithms into a series of simple steps that only needed addition and subtraction
What inspired Babbage to create the Difference Engine?
navigational tables as he believed they could be automated instead of being produced by skilled mathematicians
How did Babbage convince the British government to fun his project to build the Difference Engine?
he argued his machine would prevent accidents resulting from human error, and eager to continue to have the best navy, the the British government agreed
The Difference Engine is named after?
the “method of difference” used by de Prony a generation earlier
When did Babbage produce a small-scale prototype of the Difference Engine?
1833
True or False? The machine (prototype of the Difference Engine) Babbage made in 1833 was fully functional
False; it also could not print its results
Why was Babbage unable to produce a fully functioning Difference Engine but he had to settle for a small prototype?
It was too expensive and time consuming despite not enough gears being produced
What kind of calculation was the Difference Engine specialized to perform?
Differentiation
How many calculations was the Difference Engine able to perform?
One
Babbage envisioned the Analytical Engine as a __________________ calculating machine that could be programmed to perform any mathematical operation
the Analytical Engine
Why was Babbage unable to receive more funding for the Analytical Engine?
because he failed to deliver regarding the Difference Engine and high costs
True or False? The Analytical Engine ended up being successful as Babbage imagined.
False as the machine only existed on paper since he was unable to acquire more funding
Who is Ada Lovelace’s father?
Lord Bryon who was a famous poet
What did Lovelace do in 1843?
she translated a report that described the Analytical Engine from French and added her own commentary
What is an algorithm?
a precise step-by-step list of instructions for accomplishing a given task; they are the key to computer science: a program is simply an algorithm expressed in computer code
In her added notes to a French report on the Analytical Engine, Lovelace described what?
an algorithm for computing a series of numbers (called Bernoulli numbers) using the Analytical Engine
What were bombes?
Electromechanical machines
Who was on the team that developed the bombes?
Alan Turing
What was the purpose of the bombes?
To assist in automatically decrypting messages intercepted from the Germans
What is Turing best known for?
His contributions to theoretical computer science
True or false. America industrialize faster than Great Britain.
FALSE
After what event did large scale manufacturing became widespread in the U.S.
The Civil War
In what year was the first census performed?
1790
Name the earliest example of large-scale data processing project in the U.S.
The Census
How often is the census performed?
Every 10 year
How long did the census from 1880 took to process?
Seven years
Who was appointed as the director of the 1890 census?
Robert Porter
Whose proposal was accepted for the census of 1890 by Robert Poter in 1888?
Herman Hollerith
What was Herman Hollerith proposal regarding the demographic recording for the census?
Record demographic information on small sheets of cardstock.
What was Herman Hollerith inspiration for his punched card system?
Hollerith was inspired by the use of sheets of perforated paper to control the organette, a novelty musical instrument popular at the time.
How many spring-loaded metal pins were pressed against the card in a punched-card system?
288 spring-loaded metal pins would press against a card
When were the Remington Typewriter Company and the Rand Kardex Company merged together?
1927
Who designed and patented the first practical typewriter?
Christopher Latham Sholes
How was the keyboard layout in Sholes’ early models?
Early models of Sholes’ typewriter used an alphabetical keyboard layout.
Who invented the Comptometer?
Dorr E. Felt
Who invented the adding machinges?
William S. Burroughs
Who was the first president of IBM?
The first president was Thomas J. Watson
Who did he pass his reins, those of IBM, to in 1956?
To his son Thomas J. Watson Jr who succeeded him as IBM’s CEO
What computer did Clifford Berry and John Atanasoff make
They made the Atanaoff-Berry Computer (ABC)
What type of problem’s does the ABC Computer solve
It was meant to solve specifically Linear equations
What did these early computing devices lack
Conditional branching
What are modern computers descendants of
Early electromagnetic computers
What is a Differential Analyzer.
It was a elaborate contraption, a network of ‘‘shaft and wires wheels, pulleys, and 1,000 it was designed to solve differential equations only
Who created the Differential Analyzer
Vanneevar Bush and Harold Locke Hazen
what did the development of adding machines lead to?
the cash register
why did James Ritty make the cash register?
He was worried that his employees was pocketing the cash, or making incorrect calculations
what was the 2 main differences of a cash register from an Adding machine
had a compartment to hold cash, and the transaction was recorded the amount due would display on the top of the cash register as well as be recorded on a roll of paper
who purchased the rights of the cash register to?
John H. Patterson
what did John H. Patterson do after purchasing the rights to the cash register?
He created a company called National Cash Register Company (NCR), he created a school to educate his employees to be able to go out and sell the cash register
what company did Tomas J. Watson work for before getting fired in 1911?
He worked for NCR (National Cash Register Company) and was rising the ranks really fast, was fired abruptly and on a whim
After being fired where did Tomas J. Watson go to work?
He became employed at Computer- Tabulating- Recording (C-T-R) and rose up to being president in just 3 years
what was C-T-R the descendent of what idea?
Hollerith’s original punched-card machine company
what was IBM company previously called?
C-T-R, the name changed and then they dominated the office- machinery industry
because electricity became more common around the US this led to what modifications to the typewriter?
the typewriter no longer used the force of the writers pushing the key but converted to using electricity to replace this force, although other beyond where the force changed the design of the typewriter
a engineer at MIT named Vannevar Bush created a machine called what?
Differential Analyzer
what is the difference between a calculator and a computer?
a computer can respond to the If and Buts of a situation while a calculator in strait forward
what degree and university did Howard Aiken?
physics and Harvard University
what two companies turned Aiken down before IBM accepted his proposal?
Harvard’s physics department, and Monroe Machine Company
What political blunder did Howard Aiken commit at the reveal of Mark 1?
claimed sole credit for it when he had given lose plans to IMB’s engineers who did literally all the work as he moved onto new projects and IMB sponsored the whole project destroying all relationships with IBM and never working w/ them again
how many models got made of Mark?
there were a total of 4 marks
how did Mark 1 stay coordinated while being so big?
it had a 51-foot shaft going down the center being 2 feet in diameter this helped it stay in sync
What led to the cash register?
The adding machine
Who invented the first successful cash register and when?
James Ritty in 1879
What separated the cash register from an adding machine?
A cash register included a compartment for holding money and a display for the purchase amount
How would the cash register guarantee that the clerk was not pocketing cash?
It had a roll of paper that would be used to compare the day’s transactions to the money in the register
Who bought the rights to James Ritty’s cash register?
John H. Patterson
When did Patterson fire Watson and why?
1911, for no specified reason other than it being on a whim
what was adam smith’s famous book
The wealth of nations
what spurred the creation of the modern computer
the industrial revolution
what is specialization
when you break down the production process into smaller steps
who created the difference engine
charles babagge
