Computers
Around five thousand years ago in Asia Minor, a simple machine bearing a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack such as ones found in a pool hall may be considered the first computer. It is known as the Abacus and is still being used today. Merchants used the Abacus to record their sales transactions. Its popularity began to fall when the use of paper and pencil spread especially throughout Europe. The next significant advance of computing started with a man named Blaise Pascal, nearly twelve centuries ensuing the invention of the Abacus. Pascal was an eighteen year-old son of a French tax collector in the early 17th century. To improve his father's duties, Pascal assembled a brass rectangular box, also called a Pascaline, using eight movable dials capable of adding sums up to eight figures long. Pascal's system is all based upon the number ten. For example, as one dial passed nine, the next dial turned to represent one in the tens column as the original dial returned back to zero. The Pascaline's only drawback was its limitation to addition. A German mathematician and philosopher named Gottfried Wilhem von Leibniz improved the Pascaline in 1694 by inventing a machine with the ability to not only
Since the ENIAC, computers have become more complex, and what once was the size of a football field is about the size of a fingernail. The engine also contained a mill consisting of output devices used to print out results. The refined model used a stepped-drum gear design rather than Pascal's flat gear design, however; the widespread use of the mechanical calculator did not take effect until 1820. These cards could store memory for 1,000 numbers up to fifty decimal points long. An American inventor named Herman Hollerith also applied the Jacquard Loom concept to computing. Babbage finally called it quits after ten years of hard work. Babbage named his first attempt a Difference Engine which could be used to perform differential equations in 1822. Babbage believed there existed a strong affinity between machines and mathematics. The enhanced versatility of the arithometer influenced its popularity up until World War I. The calculator was about the size of half of a football field and consisted of 500 miles of writing. The first major interest began with the start of World War II. After this point in history the evolution of the computer began to become an increased desired area of interest. It was developed by John Presper Eckert and John W. The British were also in the pursuance of enhancing computer technology.
Common topics in this essay:
Jacquard Loom,
Abacus Pascal,
Charles Babbage,
Analytical Engine,
Gottfried Wilhem,
Mark ENIAC,
Difference Engine,
Colmar Frenchman,
Z3 British,
War II,
football field,
machine ability,
jacquard loom,
computer called,
analytical engine,
hollerith's machine,
difference engine,
general-purpose computer,
gear design,
world war,
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Acceptance Essays
