The Development of Personal Computers
The history of the computer goes back hundreds of years. From the abacus through the modern era the evolution of computers has involved many innovative individuals. It was out of this desire to innovate many fascinating tabulating machines developed. The modern computer, therefore, evolved from an amalgamation of the genius of many individuals over a long period of history. Many people shaped the world by making the efforts to develop technology.
An early counting machine (and relative of the computer) can be traced back to 3000 BC. This device is known as the abacus. Although ancient, the abacus is not archaic. It is still used in math education and in some businesses for making quick calculations (Long and Long 33C). This ancient device represents how far into history the desire of humans to use a machine for calculations goes.
Another early relative of the computer was created in the seventeenth century by Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician (Long and Long 33C). Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand on June 19, 1623 and his family settled at Paris in 1629 (Fowlie). In 1642 the young prodigy developed what is now known as "Pascal''s Calculator" (or the "Pascaline") to speed calculations for his father, a tax collector. Numbers were dialed on metal wheels on the front of the machine and the solution appeared in windows along the top (Kindersley). The "Pascaline" used a counting-wheel design (Long and Long 33C). "Numbers for each digit were arranged on wheels so that a single revolution of one wheel would engage gears that turned the wheel one tenth of a revolution to its immediate left" (qtd. in Long and Long 33C). All mechanical calculators used this counting- wheel design until it was replaced by the electronic calculator in the mid-1960s (Long and Long 33C). Pascal''s Calculator, however, was only the first step between the abacus and the computer.
The next step involves a loom. In 1801 the weaver Joseph-Marie Jaquard invented a machine that would make the jobs of over worked weavers tolerable (Long and Long 34C). His invention was known as the Jaquard loom. Jaquard’s loom used holes punched in cards to direct the movement of the needle and thread (Long and Long 34C). Jaquard''s use of punched cards is significant because it is considered the earliest use of binary automation, the same system of mathematics employed by computers today (Long and Long 34C).
The women were using sewing machines. These machines were invented by many different people, but the first inventor to get a patent on the machine was Ellis Howe. This patent was awarded in 1846.
2. The book says that it is important to listen to the lower-class, the oppressed, the discontent. Virginia Ramirez lived in a destitute community, next to an old woman who was dying because she couldn’t afford to fix her home. Her outrage at this woman’s suffering inspired her to take action. If we listen to what she has to say, we too can be inspired. I had no idea that there were people in situations like that. Now that I know, it angers me.
“Guilt is anger directed at ourselves - at what we did or did not do” (Peter McWilliams). Take a look back, even for just a moment, at one choice you have made in your life and analyze the motivations for that decision. Maybe you had given a loan to a friend because you felt guilty that they didn’t have enough money to pay for gas, or offered to take care of a neighbor’s dog because you felt you owed them from the time they kept watch over your house. This same principle applies to the characters, symbols, and plot structure of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, in which the main character, Amir, is tasked with repairing his broken life after guiltily witnessing the assault of his childhood friend. This goes to show that guilt can often be the strongest motivator for the choices people make in their everyday lives, no matter how gentle their “push” is, so to speak.
The Industrial Revolution came gradually. However, when measured against the centuries people had worked entirely by hand, it happened in a short span of time. Until the inventions of the flying shuttle in 1733 and the spinning jenny in 1764, the making of yarn and the weaving of cloth had been much the same for thousands of years. By 1800 a host of new and faster processes were in use in both manufacture and transportation.
The Factory system was changed forever by the name of one man, Richard Arkwright. Even though Arkwright was not a great inventor, he used other peoples ideas to advocate his own ambitions to the next level. “He was the first who knew how to make something out of other men’s inventions, and who built them up into an industrial system.” (Mantoux 221) Arkwright personally dealt with John Kay’s flying shuttle. However, the invention he patented was not John Kay’s but a more sufficient and effective invention. He worked with the Spinning Jenny, which was invented by James Hargreaves. (Clare 10-13) Arkwrights use of the Spinning Jenny, became the basis on how to use inventions for producing max outputs (Mantoux 224).
Coyne, Jerry. “The Case against Intelligent Design” Edge.org. Edge Foundation. 31 August 2005. Web. 15 October 2011.
Yang Hui has been found to be the oldest user of Pascal’s Triangle. But it is Blaise Pascal who around the year 1654 was credited for his extensive work on the many patterns of this triangle. Because of this people began to call it Pascal’s Triangle.
In The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini has multiple actions of sins and redemptions. A Sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. A Redemption is the action of saving or being saved from sin, error or evil. A boy from Afghanistan named amir committed a sin which causes him a life with guilt and resentment , that later lead to his redemption.
The entire point of this essay is to breakdown the theory of evolution, invalidate its scientific reliability, and support the necessity of showing its errors and inaccuracies in classroom textbooks side-by-side with creationism. To date, evolution is being taught in public schools as the only theory of origins. Creationism must be included as the only alternative and evolution discredited because of its invalidity.
Although the majority of people cannot imagine life without computers, they owe their gratitude toward an algorithm machine developed seventy to eighty years ago. Although the enormous size and primitive form of the object might appear completely unrelated to modern technology, its importance cannot be over-stated. Not only did the Turing Machine help the Allies win World War II, but it also laid the foundation for all computers that are in use today. The machine also helped its creator, Alan Turing, to design more advanced devices that still cause discussion and controversy today. The Turing Machine serves as a testament to the ingenuity of its creator, the potential of technology, and the glory of innovation.
...ere are gears used to select which numbers you want. Though Charles Babbage will always be credited with making the first “true” computer, and Bill Gates with popularizing it, Blaise Pascal will always have a place among the first true innovator of the computer. There is even a programming language called Pascal or Object Pascal which is an early computer program.
Blaise Pascal lived during a time when religion and science were clashing and challenging previous discoveries and ideas. Pascal lived from 1623 to 1662 due to his untimely death at the age of thirty nine. The scientific community grew enormously and Pascal was a great contributor to this growth. The growth in the scientific community is known as the Scientific Revolution. He lived in a time where an absolute monarch came into power, King Louis the XIV. Louis XIV was a believer in “one king, one law, and one faith” (Spielvogel, 2012). Pascal saw the destruction of protestant practices in France and the growth and acceptance of scientific discoveries. He used the scientific method to refine previous experiments that were thought to be logical but Pascal proved otherwise and eventually led to Pascal’s Law. He spent his life devoted to two loves: God and science. Within his book, “Pensees,” Pascal argues and shares his thoughts about God, science, and philosophy.
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...
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
The introduction of machinery initiated the Industrial Revolution making factories an important way of life. The machinery in factories used the pow...