CrashCourse Computer Science - Episode Overview

Introduction

• Host: Carrie Anne
• Series focus: Exploration of computing technology and its impact on society, not programming.
• Importance of computers in today's world:
  • Power grid, transportation, financial systems, and everyday objects depend on computing.
  • Technology-driven global change parallels the Industrial Revolution.

Historical Context and Early Computing Devices

The Abacus

• Invention: Around 2500 BCE, Mesopotamia.
• Function: Hand-operated calculator for addition and subtraction.
• Variants use beads to represent different powers of ten.
  • Example: Adding cattle using beads to demonstrate calculations.

Evolution of Computing Devices

• Astrolabe: Calculated latitude at sea.
• Slide Rule: Assisted with multiplication and division.
• Clocks: Used for various calculations, including celestial events.
• Early devices lowered barriers to complex calculations, enhancing human capabilities.

The Concept of a "Computer"

• Earliest definition (1613): A person who performs calculations.
• Shift in meaning: By late 1800s, referred to devices.
• Step Reckoner: Invented by Gottfried Leibniz (1694), capable of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Development of Mechanical Calculators

• Limitations of mechanical calculators:
  • Required many steps, expensive, not widely accessible.
  • Utilization of pre-computed tables for complex calculations.

Military Applications of Computing

• Importance of speed and accuracy in artillery targeting during the 1800s.
• Range Tables: Allowed gunners to find firing angles based on environmental conditions.
• Need for efficient computation acknowledged by Charles Babbage in 1822.

Charles Babbage and His Machines

Difference Engine

• Proposed to automate the computation of mathematical tables.
• Construction started in 1823, but abandoned; successfully built in 1991.

Analytical Engine

• Aimed to be a general-purpose computer:
  • Could store data, perform operations in sequence, and include a primitive printer.
• Concept influenced early computer science.
• Ada Lovelace: Wrote early programs for the Analytical Engine, regarded as the first programmer.

Shift Towards Practical Applications

• By late 19th century, computing devices were rare in business and government.
• The 1890 US Census problem:
  • Required efficiency due to population boom.
• Herman Hollerith:
  • Developed an electro-mechanical tabulating machine using punch cards.
  • Achieved results 10x faster than manual methods, completed the census in 2.5 years.

Impact on Business and Government

• Hollerith’s methods spurred businesses to use computing for data-intensive tasks.
• Hollerith's company later became IBM (International Business Machines Corporation).
• Transformation of commerce and government due to computing.

Conclusion

• The era of digital computers is approaching, setting the stage for the next episode.