The
history of computing is longer than the
history of computing hardware and
modern computing technology and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper or for chalk and slate, with or without the aid of tables. The
timeline of computing presents a summary list of major developments in computing by date.
Concrete devices
Computing is intimately tied to the representation of
numbers. But long before
abstractions like
number arose, there were mathematical concepts to serve the purposes of civilization. These concepts are implicit in concrete practices such as :
Numbers
Eventually, the concept of numbers became concrete and familiar enough for
counting to arise, at times with sing-song mnemonics to teach
sequences to others. All the known languages have words for at least
"one" and "two", and even some animals like the
blackbird can distinguish a surprising number of items.
Advances in the
numeral system and
mathematical notation eventually led to the discovery of mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squaring, square root, and so forth. Eventually the operations were formalized, and concepts about the operations became understood well enough to be
stated formally, and even
proven. See, for example,
Euclid's algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers.
By the High Middle Ages, the
positional Hindu-Arabic numeral system had reached
Europe, which allowed for systematic computation of numbers. During this period, the representation of a calculation on
paper actually allowed calculation of
mathematical expressions, and the tabulation of
mathematical functions such as the
square root and the
common logarithm (for use in multiplication and division) and the
trigonometric functions. By the time of
Isaac Newton's research, paper or vellum was an important computing resource, and even in our present time, researchers like
Enrico Fermi would cover random scraps of paper with calculation, to satisfy their curiosity about an equation. Even into the period of programmable calculators,
Richard Feynman would unhesitatingly compute any steps which overflowed the memory of the calculators, by hand, just to learn the answer.
Navigation and astronomy
Starting with known special cases, the calculation of logarithms and trigonometric functions can be performed by looking up numbers in a
mathematical table, and
interpolating between known cases. For small enough differences, this linear operation was accurate enough for use in
navigation and
astronomy in the
Age of Exploration. The uses of interpolation have thrived in the past 500 years: by the
twentieth century Leslie Comrie and
W.J. Eckert systematized the use of interpolation in tables of numbers for
punch card calculation.
In our time, even a student can simulate the motion of the planets, an N-body differential equation, using the concepts of
numerical approximation, a feat which even Isaac Newton could admire, given his struggles with the motion of the Moon.
Weather prediction
The numerical solution of differential equations, notably the
Navier-Stokes equations was an important stimulus to computing,
with
Lewis Fry Richardson's numerical approach to solving differential equations. To this day, some of the most powerful computer systems of the Earth are used for
weather forecasts.
Symbolic computations
By the late
1960s, computer systems could perform symbolic algebraic manipulations well enough to pass college-level
calculus courses. Using programs like
Maple,
Macsyma (now Maxima) and
Mathematica, including some open source programs like
Yacas, it is now possible to visualize concepts such as
modular forms which were only accessible to the
mathematical imagination before this.
See also
External links
Computer History Museums
Computing hardware has been an important component of the process of calculation and computer data storage since it became useful for numerical values to be processed and shared.
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history of computing hardware in former Soviet Bloc is somewhat different from that of Western countries. Since Communist party propaganda maintained that western construction was next to useless, and the West had strict export restrictions on this technology, everything had to be
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history of computer operating systems recapitulates to a degree, the recent history of computing.
Operating systems (OS) provide a set of functions needed and used by most application-programs on a computer, and the necessary linkages for the control and sychronization of
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Cost and Budget Overruns: The OS/360 operating system was a classic example. This decade-long project from the 1960s and 1970s eventually produced one of the most complex software systems ever created. OS/360 was one of the first large (1000 programmer) software projects.
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programming languages. For a detailed timeline of events, see the timeline of programming languages.
Prehistory
The first programming languages predate the modern computer. From the first, the languages were codes.
..... Click the link for more information. Limited computer power: There was not enough memory or processing speed to accomplish anything truly useful. For example, Ross Quillian's successful work on natural language was demonstrated with a vocabulary of only twenty
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The graphical user interface, or "GUI" (IPA: /ˈɡuːiː/), is a computer interface that uses graphic icons and controls in addition to text.
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first multiprotocol wide area network called the NASA Science Internet, or NSI. NSI was established to provide a total integrated communications infrastructure to the NASA scientific community for the advancement of earth, space and life sciences.
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World Wide Web ("WWW" or simply the "Web") is a global information medium which users can read and write via computers connected to the Internet. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet itself, but the Web is a service that operates over the
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Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe.
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timeline of events in the history of computing. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related History of computing.
Computing timelines: 2400 BC-1949, 1950-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-present
Resources
..... Click the link for more information. computing is synonymous with counting and calculating. Originally, people that performed these functions were known as computers. Today it refers to a science and technology that deals with the computation and the manipulation of symbols.
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Computing hardware has been an important component of the process of calculation and computer data storage since it became useful for numerical values to be processed and shared.
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computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions.
Computers take numerous physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1941), although the computer concept and various machines
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timeline of events in the history of computing. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related History of computing.
Computing timelines: 2400 BC-1949, 1950-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-present
Resources
..... Click the link for more information. Abstraction is the process of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically in order to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose.
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In mathematics, a bijection, or a bijective function is a function f from a set X to a set Y with the property that, for every y in Y, there is exactly one x in X such that
f(x) = y.
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Counting is the mathematical action of repeatedly adding (or subtracting) one, usually to find out how many objects there are or to set aside a desired number of objects (starting with one for the first object and proceeding with an injective function from the remaining objects to
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A tally (or tally stick) was an ancient memory aid device to record and document numbers, quantities, or even messages. While the origin of this technique is lost in prehistory, archaeological proof of the existence of such devices is ample.
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Reproducibility is one of the main principles of the scientific method, and refers to the ability of a test or experiment to be accurately reproduced, or replicated, by someone else working independently.
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Measurement is the estimation of the magnitude of some attribute of an object, such as its length or weight, relative to a unit of measuremnt. Measurement usually involves using a measuring instrument, such as a ruler or scale, which is calibrated to compare the object to some
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COIN can refer to:
- Collaborative Innovation Networks
- Counterinsurgency
- Coin
- This article is about monetary coins.
..... Click the link for more information. rope (IPA: /rəʊp/) is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength (i.e.
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KNOT
City of license Prescott, Arizona
Broadcast area Flagstaff-Prescott, Arizona
Branding 1450 KNOT Classic Country
First air date 1957
Frequency 1450 (KHz)
Format Classic Country
ERP 1,000 watts
Class C
Owner Guyann Corporation
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Counting is the mathematical action of repeatedly adding (or subtracting) one, usually to find out how many objects there are or to set aside a desired number of objects (starting with one for the first object and proceeding with an injective function from the remaining objects to
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sequence is an ordered list of objects (or events). Like a set, it contains members (also called elements or terms), and the number of terms (possibly infinite) is called the length of the sequence.
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Language 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Bashkir ноль
nol бер
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ös дөрт
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T. merula
Binomial name
Turdus merula
Linnaeus, 1758
The Blackbird or Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a European member of the thrush family Turdidae.
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numeral system (or system of numeration) is a framework where a set of numbers are represented by numerals in a consistent manner. It can be seen as the context that allows the numeral "11" to be interpreted as the binary numeral for three
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∞ in several typefaces.]] Mathematical notation is used in mathematics, and throughout the physical sciences, engineering, and economics. The complexity of such notation ranges from relatively simple symbolic representations, such as numbers 1 and 2; function symbols
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