Social Science - Quiz 08 - Pg. 20-23

How many people initially worked on the ENIAC?

• ten

• two

• twelve

• four

• eight

Answer explanation

After the directors of Aberdeen Proving Grounds approved the ENIAC, they formed a twelve-person team to work on the project. [20,2]

Who was the lead engineer for the ENIAC?

• Max Newman

• John Mauchly

• Herman Goldstine

• John von Neumann

• J. Presper Eckert

Answer explanation

J. Presper Eckert was the lead engineer for the ENIAC. He emphasized a high quality product, particularly regarding the ENIAC’s vacuum tubes. [20,3]

Which household item does a vacuum tube MOST closely resemble?

• vacuum cleaner

• toaster coil

• lightbulb

• drinking glass

• microwave oven

Answer explanation

Vacuum tubes resemble lightbulbs. Their purpose is to modulate and amplify electric current. [20,3]

Approximately how many vacuum tubes did the ENIAC require?

• 720

• 18,000

• 5,400

• 64

• 66,000

Answer explanation

The ENIAC contained approximately 18,000 vacuum tubes. If any of these highly problematic parts failed, the entire computer would malfunction. [20,3]

Which of the following preventative measures did the ENIAC’s designers take to improve its reliability?

• placing multiple vacuum tubes in parallel so one failure would not cause the computer to malfunction

• periodically rotating vacuum tubes to prevent any single tube from exceeding its capacity

• reducing the number of vacuum tubes in the ENIAC to eliminate points of failure

• leaving vacuum tubes in the “off” state when not in use

• operating vacuum tubes at 10 percent of their rated voltage

Answer explanation

To reduce malfunctions in the ENIAC, J. Presper Eckert ran the vacuum tubes at only 10% of their rated voltage. He also insisted on the highest quality tubes possible. [20,3]

Why was the ENIAC faster than prior calculators?

• It used higher quality vacuum tubes.

• It contained an extensive lookup table for logarithms.

• It was fully electronic and had no moving parts.

• It used improved rounding algorithms for floating point computations.

• It represented integers in binary instead of decimal.

Answer explanation

The ENIAC’s memory and processor were entirely electronic. Its lack of moving parts made it considerably faster than earlier calculators. [20,4]

Which aspect of the ENIAC solidified its status as a computer, not a calculator?

• binary arithmetic

• stored program concept

• binary instruction representation

• conditional branching

• branch prediction

Answer explanation

The ENIAC was capable of conditional branching, in which the output values of previous instructions determine which instructions are computed next. This feature distinguished the ENIAC from automated calculators. [20,4]

Programmers gave instructions to the ENIAC through

• a proprietary high-level programming language

• 3.5-inch floppy disks

• low-level assembly instructions

• thousands of punch cards

• a system of switches and cables

Answer explanation

The ENIAC was the first general-purpose computer, meaning users could program it to perform all types of computation, rather than preset calculations. [21,0]

Which of the following people was NOT an original ENIAC programmer?

• Kathleen McNulty

• Adele Finebaum

• Jean Bartik

• Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer

• Frances Bilas Spence

Answer explanation

The six original programmers of the ENIAC were all women who previously computed firing tables. They included all of the aforementioned names except for Adele Finebaum, a fictional combination of Herman Goldstine’s wife Adele and sportscaster Paul Finebaum. [21,1]

Compared to the ENIAC, the EDVAC’s design was

• simpler

• more secure

• more reliable

• faster

• more elaborate

Answer explanation

The ENIAC’s designers operated under immense time pressure due to the ongoing war, resulting in a design that was unnecessarily complex. Consequently, Eckert and Mauchly decided to create the simpler EDVAC. [21,2]