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History of computers
History of computers
Role of technology in day to day life
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Computer engineering, in short, is the study of the applications and advancement of computer systems. Research in this field includes but is not limited to: making technology more accessible, developing new systems that are faster and more efficient, programming software to work better with existing hardware, and using technology to improve the lives of its users.
A relatively new field of study, the first college degree program in a U.S. College didn't exist until 1971. The history of computers is much older, stretching back to the 17th century when computers were conceived as an idea to make simple math easier, using mechanical parts to calculate basic math instead of by hand, which produced a large amount of errors. An early contributor to computers, Blaise Pascal was an inventor who invented a mechanical calculator called the “Pascaline”, which was used as an aid for his father, who was a tax collector. The one-function Pascaline could only add, and couldn't be sold due to its high cost. The archaic calculator was an inspiration to many inventors, who added and improved to it over the centuries. One inventor, Gottfried Leibniz, improved on it by adding subtraction, multiplication and division functions.
Leibniz added a cylinder with ridges of incremental length which allowed the calculator to do more than just add. Known as the Leibniz wheel, it was the basis of another of his inventions, the Stepped Reckoner. It was the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. The device was inaccurate due to the inferior technology of his time, and could not automatically multiply or divide; the process the machine takes to multiply is to repeatedly add the n...
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...ing ways to calculate math easier and more efficient than by hand. Early inventions like the abacus and slide ruler proved useful, but the need for a mechanized solution was made more evident as time passed and needs for faster calculating increased.
Early computers were nothing more than people, who's job was to “compute” by doing math by hand. Full of errors and tedious, mechanical devices were invented that could make the job easier. Even though the technology was out, it didn't catch on due to being pricey. Modern computing begins with the ENIAC, and went into full speed with the improvements of the IC. In the past 3 decades, the shift in computing has been from private to home use, and technology plays and increasingly important role in our lives. Technology is always being improved, and is being innovated in more ways than just computers used for doing work.
The “Blaise Pascaline,” as referred to in [3] would be considered today as an early version of a calculator. This project derived in part from helping out his father who had been promoted as a tax clerk, a job which required him to perform long calculations at work. Only one other mechanical device was known to add up figures before the Pascaline and that was known as the Schickard's calculating clock, created by German professor Wilhelm Schickard. Unlike Schickard device, Pascal’s calculator had a larger number of production and use despite the somewhat unreliability of the device. The device consisted of a wheel with eight movable parts for dialing and each part corresponding to a particular digit in a number. It worked by using gears and pins to add integers; addends were entered by hand and carriers from one column to the next were broadcast internally by falling weights lifted and dropped by the pins attached to the gears. It could even be manipulated to subtract, multiply and divide if one knew their way around the Pascaline. Subtraction was done by adding the nines complement version of the number being subtracted. Multiplication; accomplished by repeating additions and division performed by repeating subtractions. Balise Pascals went on to inspire directly inspired further work on calculating machines by other inventors such as Gottfried Leibniz and Samuel
Mark I. It was actually a electromechanical calculation. It is said that this was the first potentially computers. In 1951 Remington Rand’s came out with the UNIVAC it began
Computer engineering started about 5,000 years ago in China when they invented the abacus. The abacus is a manual calculator in which you move beads back and forth on rods to add or subtract. Other inventors of simple computers include Blaise Pascal who came up with the arithmetic machine for his father’s work. Also Charles Babbage produced the Analytical Engine, which combined math calculations from one problem and applied it to solve other complex problems. The Analytical Engine is similar to today’s computers.
In 1821, Babbage began the task of mechanizing the production of tables. In 1822, he proposed to build a machine called the Difference Engine to automatically calculate mathematical tables. The idea was to invent a calculating machine that could not only calculate without error but also automatically print the results. Difference engines were designed to calculate using the method of finite differences, a well-used principle of the time. It was only partially completed when he conceived the idea of a more sophisticated machine called the Analytical Engine.
We have the microprocessor to thank for all of our consumer electronic devices, because without them, our devices would be much larger. Microprocessors are the feat of generations of research and development. Microprocessors were invented in 1972 by Intel Corporation and have made it so that computers could shrink to the sizes we know today. Before, computers took a room because the transistors or vacuum tubes were individual components. Microprocessors unified the technology on one chip while reducing the costs. Microprocessor technology has been the most important revolution in the computer industry in the past forty years, as microprocessors have allowed our consumer electronics to exist.
The World Turning Digital: computer is seen in virtually all aspects of our lives. From the mobile phones we use, the Television we watch etc. Makes it pretty interesting to found out how this work.
Ada Lovelace was the daughter of famous poet at the time, Lord George Gordon Byron, and mother Anne Isabelle Milbanke, known as “the princess of parallelograms,” a mathematician. A few weeks after Ada Lovelace was born, her parents split. Her father left England and never returned. Women received inferior education that that of a man, but Isabelle Milbanke was more than able to give her daughter a superior education where she focused more on mathematics and science (Bellis). When Ada was 17, she was introduced to Mary Somerville, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician who’s party she heard Charles Babbage’s idea of the Analytic Engine, a new calculating engine (Toole). Charles Babbage, known as the father of computer invented the different calculators. Babbage became a mentor to Ada and helped her study advance math along with Augustus de Morgan, who was a professor at the University of London (Ada Lovelace Biography Mathematician, Computer Programmer (1815–1852)). In 1842, Charles Babbage presented in a seminar in Turin, his new developments on a new engine. Menabrea, an Italian, wrote a summary article of Babbage’s developments and published the article i...
In 1886 Dorr D. Felt (1862 - 1930) invented the "comptometer". This was the first calculator where the operands are entered by just pressing keys. In 1889 in also invents the first printing desk calculator.
Since the beginning of time, humans have thought and made many inventions. Repeatedly the newer one is better than the older. Our minds have created many remarkable things, however the best invention we ever created is the computer. computers are constantly growing and becoming better every day. Every day computers are capable of doing new things. Even though computers have helped us a lot in our daily lives, many jobs have been lost because of it, now the computer can do all of the things a man can do in seconds! Everything in the world relies on computers and if a universal threat happens in which all computers just malfunction then we are doomed. Computers need to be programmed to be able to work or else it would just be a useless chunk of metal. And we humans need tools to be able to live; we program the computer and it could do a lot of necessary functions that have to be done. It is like a mutual effect between us and he computer (s01821169 1).
Modern technology is changing mankind's way of life, and at the forefront, computers are paving the way. New media and technology offer new, and exciting jobs allowing humans to live at the speed of light. Computers have advanced our civilization and from now on, nothing will ever be the same. One thing is certain. Computer engineering will not be the same five years from now . . . maybe not even in five minutes.
The history of the computer dates back all the way to the prehistoric times. The first step towards the development of the computer, the abacus, was developed in Babylonia in 500 B.C. and functioned as a simple counting tool. It was not until thousands of years later that the first calculator was produced. In 1623, the first mechanical calculator was invented by Wilhelm Schikard, the “Calculating Clock,” as it was often referred to as, “performed it’s operations by wheels, which worked similar to a car’s odometer” (Evolution, 1). Still, there had not yet been anything invented that could even be characterized as a computer. Finally, in 1625 the slide rule was created becoming “the first analog computer of the modern ages” (Evolution, 1). One of the biggest breakthroughs came from by Blaise Pascal in 1642, who invented a mechanical calculator whose main function was adding and subtracting numbers. Years later, Gottfried Leibnez improved Pascal’s model by allowing it to also perform such operations as multiplying, dividing, taking the square root.
The 17th Century saw Napier, Briggs and others greatly extend the power of mathematics as a calculator science with his discovery of logarithms. Cavalieri made progress towards the calculus with his infinitesimal methods and Descartes added the power of algebraic methods to geometry. Euclid, who lived around 300 BC in Alexandria, first stated his five postulates in his book The Elements that forms the base for all of his later Abu Abd-Allah ibn Musa al’Khwarizmi, was born abo...
Between 1850 and 1900, the mathematics and physics fields began advancing. The advancements involved extremely arduous calculations and formulas that took a great deal of time when done manually.
Computers have changed the way that the world works in many different ways. Some of these changes are positive and some of these changes have had negative effects on our lives. From an industrial standpoint most of these changes have been helpful to businesses and the economy. In the medical field computers have had an impact in many different areas, ranging from the way appointments are made to the carrying out of everyday tasks.
From classroom activities to space flight and everything in between, computers are a vital part of daily life. Everything we do and every aspect of our life is affected by modern technology, like the computers. Computers let us dissect any sort of data. Computers make us reflect, hence we develop. Because of computers and the Internet, we can talk with individuals from diverse nations, and even see them via webcams.