Why were computers invented?

Answer

It is difficult to identify any one device as the earliest computer, partly because the term "computer" has been subject to varying interpretations over time. Originally, the term "computer" referred to a person who performed numerical calculations (a human computer), often with the aid of a mechanical calculating device.

The first computers were invented as counting devices. The Pascaline, one of the earliest mechanical devices for calculating, was invented in 1642 to help Blaise Pascal with the recording of taxes. The first electronic calculating machine was invented by Herman Hollerith in the late 1800's, this time for the purpose of the U.S. Census. The first electronic digital computer was built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University during 1937-42. What today is known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) was intended to solve large systems of linear equations.

The first computer-like machine was the Mark I, built in the 1930's, but it was really little more than a highly sophisticated calculator. Finally, in 1946, ENIAC, the first true computer was completed. Originally built to help with the war effort by calculating the trajectory of artillery shells, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integration and Calculator) could make decisions, the key feature that distinguishes calculators from computers. It was constructed at the University of Pennsylvania by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. Credit for the original design of the electronic computer, however, is given to John Atanasoff of Iowa State University for his ABC.

Computers are a natural progression from a calculating mathematical machine. As technology became more advanced and sophisticated, it was realized that computers could be used to do manual jobs much quicker than a human could and work out problems much quicker than the human brain. Computers also reduce cost and reduce the need for people at large industries and companies.

To this day, computing is still fundamentally the manipulation of numbers. Every time you click the mouse, or send an email, or watch a movie, you're not really doing that on the most basic level - you're performing infinitely-complex Algebraic computations. Computers don't even really handle letters as letters - they actually convert them to numbers!

Computers were originally invented for making calculations easier, but have progressed through time to become very complex and useful tools in everyday life.

• What is the pressure inside of a cylinder in a 152 CID gas combustion engine?
• How do fire doors close?
• The first recorded computational device?