History of Computing Devices

Charles Babbage is known as the father of computing because he built the first computer in the 1900s.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Charles Babbage did not get to finish his machines, it was his idea (from his notes) that was used in the 1900s to build the first computer. This is why he is known as the father of computing.

The first computers were created as calculating devices.

• True

• False

The abacus was the FIRST calculating device created in 500 BC by the Babylonians.

• True

• False

Reorder the following in the order they were invented.

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The ​ abacus was invented by the ​ (a)   in 500 BC.

The Pascaline was created by​ (b)   in 1642.

The Stepped Reckoner was created by​ (c)   in 1673.

Jacquard's Loom was invented by ​ (d)   in 1801.

The Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine were both invented by ​ (e)   between 1822 and 1833.

• Babylonians
• Blaise Pascal
• Gottfried Wilhelm
• Albert Einstein
• Joseph Marie Jacquard
• Charles Babbage
• Benjamin Franklin
• Thomas Edison
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Persians

Match the following descriptions with the machine they refer to.

• The Difference Engine

• Machine first used to calculate mathematical tables

• Pascaline

• Machine first used for tax collection.

• Hollerinth's Tabulating Machine

• First machine that could add, subtract, multiply and divide

• Stepped Reckoner

• First machine to record & store info on punched cards

• The Analytical Machine.

• The machine that worked like a computer brain and its memory.

The Pascaline was the first machine that could add, subtract, multiply and divide.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

The Pascaline could only add and subtract.

It was the Stepped Reckoner that was developed next that could do all four mathematical processes.

He was the inventor who created the machine used to calculate a census

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This machine was used to count and sort information for the US census. It was the __________________________.

• Abacus
• Hollerith's Tabulating Machine
• Analytical Engine
• Difference engine

The first person to introduce the binary system was

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