The Impact of Computers essays

The Impact of Computers essays The 20th century was filled with many impactful and life changing events for Americans. There were wars, depressions, technology and inventions that changed the way Americans would live forever. The most significant of all these events was the invention of the Computer. In the 1930s America suffered from the Great Depression. During this time the countrys economy was suffering and business was slow. Though business was slow for most, the scientific world flourished with activity. This flourishing activity brought fourth the first serious attempt to design a computer that could do many complicated scientific computations. A few years later John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry created a prototype of the binary based ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer). This prototype is often considered the first automatic digital computer. This creation completed the decade and gave American scientists a head start on the demanding technological needs of the 1940s. Along with the 1940s came World War II, and the need for technological advancements in order to win the war. In 1943 The Colossus, a programmable digital machine became operable in England. This machine is considered to be the first electronic computer. It was used in World War II by the British in order to break the German Code. A year later in 1944 Howard Aiken and his team at Harvard built MARK I, a program controlled, large scale calculating machine. Programmed by Grace Hopper, the machine went right to work providing essential calculations for the United States Navy during the war. Though these computers had helped greatly with the war efforts they still had one problem, little memory. Four years later a scientist by the name of Andrew Donald Booth solved this problem by creating the magnetic drum memory which held 40 bits of memory. This advancement in computers led the way for more advancements during the 1950s. Technological advancements boom...