Assignment

Contents:

  • Overview
  • Internet Requirements
  • Practice Problems
  • Problems to be Submitted
  • Extra Credit

    • Overview

     Topic: History of Computing
    Related Reading: Ch. 1
    Due:

    Internet Requirements

     You will need an Internet connection for completing the assignment as well as submission.

    Practice Problems
  • Exercise 7 of Ch. 1 (p. 29); answer in back of text

  • Exercise 13 of Ch. 1 (p. 29); answer in back of text

    • Problems to be Submitted (20 points)

    1. (3 points)
      Exercise 8 of Ch. 1 (p. 29)

    2. (9 points)
      Exercise 12 of Ch. 1 (p. 29)
      Hint: For this problem, use the web as a tool. My personal favorite of search engines is google.com.

    3. (4 points)
      Exercise 35 of Ch. 1 (p. 30)

    4. (4 points)
      At the end of Ch. 1 there are a series of "Thought Questions" (p. 31). Pick any one question to answer. The length of your answer should be appropriate for the question, however I envision answers in the range of 1/2-page to 1-page.
    Overall, please type your answers to all of the problems in a single document to be submitted electronically. Please see details about the submission process.

    Extra Credit (2 points)

     The Pascaline device was not actually the earliest gear-driven calculator. It was designed in 1642 and patented in 1645. An earliest gear-driven caluclator, capable of performing addition, was created by someone else in 1623. Sadly it was destroyed in a fire and the creator died of bubonic plague years before Pascal's device was created. The original went unnoticed until design documents were discovered in 1935!.

    Who created that earlier device?
    Please cite your source of information.

    If you find some other earlier device that you feel qualifies as a gear-driven calculator, feel free to discuss it (and again, cite your source of information).

    Last modified: 21 August 2002