Question: Who invented the planisphere?
Answer: Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī

Question: Who is thought to have invented the astrolabe in history?
Answer: Hipparchus

Question: The astrolabe was a combination of what two devices in history?
Answer: the planisphere and dioptra

Question: The first astrolabe with gear-wheels was invented when?
Answer: 1235

Question: The first astrolabe with a mechanical calendar was invented where?
Answer: Persia

Question: The sector, a calculating instrument, was invented during what century?
Answer: 16th century

Question: When was the slide rule first invented?
Answer: 1620–1630

Question: What is the slide rule used for?
Answer: doing multiplication and division.

Question: What industry are slide rules still used today?
Answer: Aviation

Question: What was the profession of Pierre Jaquet-Droz?
Answer: a Swiss watchmaker

Question: When did Pierre Jaquet-Droz build a mechanical doll that could hold a pen?
Answer: In the 1770s

Question: Where is the doll Pierre Jaquet-Droz built today?
Answer: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

Question: Where is the Musee d-Art et d'Histoire located?
Answer: Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Question: When was the tide-predicting machine invented by Sir William Thomson invented?
Answer: 1872

Question: Who invented the first tide-predicting machine in 1872?
Answer: Sir William Thomson

Question: What did Sir William Thomson's tide-predicting machine use to function?
Answer: system of pulleys and wires

Question: What type of mechanisms did the differential analyzer use?
Answer: wheel-and-disc

Question: In 1876 who lobbied for the construction of the differential analyzers?
Answer: Lord Kelvin

Question: During what decade were mechanical differential analyzers developed?
Answer: 1920s

Question: In the 1920s, who was the person who developed mechanical differential analyzers?
Answer: Vannevar Bush

Question: Who invented the concept of a programmable computer?
Answer: Charles Babbage

Question: Who is considered the "father of the computer"?
Answer: Charles Babbage

Question: During what century was the first mechanical computer invented by Charles Babbage?
Answer: early 19th century

Question: What year did Charles Babbage find out that An Analytical Engine was possible?
Answer: 1833

Question: Who was Charles Babbage's son?
Answer: Henry Babbage

Question: Who created a simple version of the analytical engine's computing unit?
Answer: Henry Babbage

Question: When was the mill created by Henry Babbage?
Answer: 1888

Question: When was a demonstration by Henry Babbage of the mill given?
Answer: 1906

Question: Who invented the first analog computer in the form of a tide-predicting machine?
Answer: Sir William Thomson

Question: When was the first analog computer in the form of a tide-predicting machine created?
Answer: 1872

Question: Who created the idea of the differential analyzer in 1876?
Answer: James Thomson

Question: James Thomson was the brother of what famous figure?
Answer: Lord Kelvin

Question: Where was the differential analyzer built by H.L. Hazen?
Answer: MIT

Question: The differential analyzer by H.L. Hazen and Vannevar Bush was first being built in what year?
Answer: 1927

Question: The torque amplifiers of the differential analyzer were created by whom?
Answer: H. W. Nieman

Question: By what decade were analog computing devices rendered obsolete?
Answer: 50s

Question: Analog computers remain in use in what industries?
Answer: education (control systems) and aircraft (slide rule).

Question: Who wrote the paper "On Computable Numbers"?
Answer: Alan Turing

Question: When did Alan Turing write the paper, "On Computable Numbers"?
Answer: 1936

Question: Who did Turing revise the results on the limits of proof and computation in 1931?
Answer: Kurt Gödel

Question: A Universal Machine is known as what today?
Answer: Universal Turing machine

Question: What part of the US military developed an electromechanical analog computer to use on a submarine?
Answer: the United States Navy

Question: When did the US Navy invent an electromechanical computer to use on a submarine?
Answer: 1938

Question: What type of math did the Torpedo Data computer use to fire a torpedo at a moving target?
Answer: trigonometry

Question: Who created the relay computer, the Z2?
Answer: Konrad Zuse

Question: When did Konrad Zuse invent the Z2?
Answer: 1939

Question: What is one of the first electromechanical relay computers?
Answer: The Z2

Question: Konrad Zuse was an engineer with what nationality?
Answer: German

Question: When did Konrad Zuse create the Z3 computer?
Answer: 1941

Question: What was the first automatic, digital, programmable computer created by Konrad Zuse?
Answer: the Z3

Question: How many relays did the Z3 contain?
Answer: 2000

Question: What did the Z3 operate for a clock frequency?
Answer: about 5–10 Hz

Question: How many words of memory could be stored with the Z3?
Answer: 64

Question: Where did the engineer Tommy Flowers work at during the 1930s?
Answer: Post Office Research Station

Question: In what city did Tommy Flowers work in the 1930s?
Answer: London

Question: The Atanasoff-Berry computer was invented in what year?
Answer: 1942

Question: How many vacuum tubes did the Atanasoff-Berry computer use?
Answer: about 300

Question: At what school did John Vincent Atansoff and Clifford E. Berry work?
Answer: Iowa State University

Question: Who built the first Colossus in 1943?
Answer: Flowers

Question: When was the Colossus sent to Bletchley Park?
Answer: 18 January 1944

Question: Who achieved success at cracking secret German military communications during World War II?
Answer: , the British

Question: Where did the British crack secret German military communications during World War II?
Answer: Bletchley Park

Question: What was the first electronic digital programmable computer in the world?
Answer: Colossus

Question: How many vacuum tubes did the Colossus Mark I contain?
Answer: 1500 thermionic valves (tubes)

Question: How many tubes did Colossus Mark II contain?
Answer: 2400

Question: The US-buils ENIAC stands for what?
Answer: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)

Question: What was the first electronic programmable computer built in the United States?
Answer: ENIAC

Question: How many times could it add or subtract a second?
Answer: 5000

Question: What was the limit of its high speed memory?
Answer: ENIAC

Question: ENIAC was constructed by whom?
Answer: John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert

Question: Where did John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert build the ENIAC?
Answer: University of Pennsylvania

Question: When was ENIAC fully operational?
Answer: 1945

Question: The basis for the stored-program computer was written by whom?
Answer: Alan Turing

Question: When did Alan Turing write his paper about the basis for the stored-program computer?
Answer: 1936

Question: When did Alan Turing join the National Physical Laboratory?
Answer: 1945

Question: The first outline for the report on the EDVAC was released by John von Neumann when?
Answer: 1945.

Question: Where did John von Neumann circulate the first draft of a report on the EDVAC?
Answer: University of Pennsylvania

Question: What was the nickname of the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine?
Answer: Baby

Question: What was the first stored-program computer in the world?
Answer: The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine

Question: Where was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine built?
Answer: Victoria University of Manchester

Question: Who built the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine?
Answer: Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill

Question: When did the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine run its first program?
Answer: 21 June 1948

Question: What was the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1?
Answer: The Mark 1

Question: What was the first available computer for the public?
Answer: Ferranti Mark 1

Question: When was the Ferranti Mark 1 built?
Answer: 1951