Early Computers
This ancient counting tool uses beads that slide on rods.
What is an abacus
This inventor designed a mechanical calculating machine called the Difference Engine
Who is Charles Babbage
Early computers could fill a room, while many computers today can fit here
What is your hand or pocket
The physical parts of a computer that you can touch are called this.
What is Hardware
Which came first: the abacus or the laptop?
What is the abacus
Before electronic computers, people used machines mainly to help them do this
What is calculate/do math
DAILY DOUBLE!! For double the points, Babbage is sometimes given this nickname because of his early computer designs
Who is the "father of the computer"
Modern computers became much smaller partly because these replaced bulky vacuum tubes
What are transistors
Programs and apps inside the computer are examples of this.
What is software?
Which came first: vacuum-tube computers or smartphones?
What are vacuum-tube computers
Early electronic computers were so large they could take up most of one of these
What is a room
This mathematician wrote instructions for Babbage's Analytical Engine and is often called the first computer programmer
Who is Ada Lovelace
A computer inside a phone is an example of how computers became more of this over time
What is smaller or portable
Information entered into a computer is called this.
What is input
Put these in order from oldest to newest: smartphone, abacus, ENIAC.
What is abacus → ENIAC → smartphone?
DAILY DOUBLE!! For double the points... Early computers used thousands of these electronic components before transistors became common
What are vacuum tubes
Herman Hollerith developed a system using what item to help count information from the U.S. Census.
What are punched cards
Compared with early computers, today's computers can perform calculations much more ____.
What is quickly
Information a computer gives back to you is called this.
What is output
Computers changed from huge machines to desktop computers and eventually to these portable computers with folding screens.
What are laptops
ENIAC was one of the earliest examples of this type of machine
What is an electronic computer
The punched-card system helped machines do something computers still do today: organize and work with this.
What is data or information
Phones, cars, appliances, and game systems can all contain these tiny computer “brains.”
What are microprocessors/computer chips?
A set of instructions telling a computer what to do is called this.
What is a program
The overall history of computers shows that computers have generally become smaller, faster, and more ____.
What is powerful?