WorksheetsColossus
Total questions: 15
Worksheet time: 8mins
In which year did they start creating the very first electronic digital computer?
1942
1943
1944
1945
What was the name given to the first digital computer?
Colossus
Magnificant
Gigantic
ENIAC
What was the name of the place where the first digital computer was created?
Bletchley Park
Clifton Park
Park Avenue
1G4
What was the main role of the first digital computer?
Playing Minecraft with friends
Breaking the German codes during WW2.
Word Processing each of the codes heard on the radio.
Emailing the commands between countries.
Colossus used ‘valves’. What was the role of these valves?
Powering up Colossus.
Processing the messages being fed to it on punched paper tape.
Inputting text onto a screen.
Outputting the messages sent over the radio waves.
How many valves were used on each of the 10 Colossus machines?
300
2400
3500
4600
What were the two main problems caused by using the valves?
Large and they took up a large amount of space.
Thousands needed which were made of glass so broke easily.
Loud when running causing staff deafness.
Too bright when running causing staff blindness.
Many years later transistors were invented. How did transistors help in the development of new computers?
They did the same job, but were smaller so more could be used.
They are a lot quieter, which means using them doesn't cause hearing loss.
They are a lot bigger so they could be used in most people's homes.
They are a lot louder, so people know they are working.
Roughly how many transistors might you find on a modern laptop?
2
200
2 million
2 billion
What is the role of software?
To tell the hardware what to do
To tell the user what to do
To tell the hard drive where to save
To change the password to log in
There was no such thing as software when Colossus was developed. How did they get it to work?
Rewired for each task
Someone told it what to do
Use the mouse and keyboard
Turn it off and turn it back on again
How long might it have taken to re-wire Colossus?
A day
A week
Two days
Weeks
After rewiring Colossus it had to be given the secret message to decode. What was used to provide it with the message?
Bluetooth
Infrared
Punch Paper Tape
Sticky notes
The item which held the secret messages contained lots of holes. What was the purpose of those holes?
Contained the binary for each messaging being processed.
Contained dates of the messages.
Contained the times the messages were sent.
Contained empty parts.
Even though Colossus looks primitive to us now, it effectively does the same thing as a modern computer today. Which three things do all computers do:
Input data
Process data
Output information
Email users
Code break messages.
