Electronic Computing

Front

The electrically-controlled mechanical switches used in room-sized computers were called ___

Back

mechanical relays

Front

You can think of a relay like a water faucet. The control wire is like the ___ (Options: spout, flow of water, faucet handle, supply pipe)

Back

faucet handle

Front

A good relay in the 1940’s might be able to flick back and forth ___

Back

fifty times in a second

Front

For the Harvard Mark I, complex operations, like a trigonometric function, could take ___

Back

over a minute

Front

The Harvard Mark I had roughly 3500 relays. On average, one faulty relay would need replacing every ___ (Options: hour, day, week, month)

Back

day

Front

What type of "bug" was pulled from the Harvard Mark II in September 1947? Options: a grasshopper, a butterfly, a housefly, a moth

Back

a moth

Front

Who said, "From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it."? Options: Ava Lovelace, Grace Hopper, Clair Babbage, Edith Clarke

Back

Grace Hopper

Front

In 1904, English physicist John Ambrose Fleming developed the first ___

Back

vacuum tube

Front

An electronic component that permits the one-way flow of current is called ___

Back

a diode

Front

In 1906, what did Lee de Forest add to the Fleming valve?

Back

a third “control” electrode