Answer: Nicholas of Verdun

Context: Romanesque art, especially metalwork, was at its most sophisticated in Mosan art, in which distinct artistic personalities including Nicholas of Verdun (d. 1205) become apparent, and an almost classical style is seen in works such as a font at Liège, contrasting with the writhing animals of the exactly contemporary Gloucester Candlestick. Large illuminated bibles and psalters were the typical forms of luxury manuscripts, and wall-painting flourished in churches, often following a scheme with a Last Judgement on the west wall, a Christ in Majesty at the east end, and narrative biblical scenes down the nave, or in the best surviving example, at Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, on the barrel-vaulted roof.

Question: Who was a noted figure in Mosan art?


Answer: 1205

Question: What year saw the death of Nicholas of Verdun?


Answer: west

Question: On what wall of a church was the Last Judgment typically painted?


Answer: on the barrel-vaulted roof

Question: Where are narrative biblical scenes painted in the church at Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe?


Answer: Gloucester Candlestick

Question: What notable Romanesque metalwork is named for Gloucester?


Answer: 12th

Context: From the early 12th century, French builders developed the Gothic style, marked by the use of rib vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, and large stained glass windows. It was used mainly in churches and cathedrals, and continued in use until the 16th century in much of Europe. Classic examples of Gothic architecture include Chartres Cathedral and Reims Cathedral in France as well as Salisbury Cathedral in England. Stained glass became a crucial element in the design of churches, which continued to use extensive wall-paintings, now almost all lost.

Question: In what century did the Gothic style first flourish?


Answer: 16th

Question: In what century did the Gothic style cease to be used?


Answer: Chartres

Question: Along with Reims, where is a notable Gothic cathedral in France located?


Answer: Salisbury Cathedral

Question: What is a notable English Gothic cathedral?


Answer: French

Question: Among which builders was the Gothic style first used?


Answer: Janetta Benton

Context: During this period the practice of manuscript illumination gradually passed from monasteries to lay workshops, so that according to Janetta Benton "by 1300 most monks bought their books in shops", and the book of hours developed as a form of devotional book for lay-people. Metalwork continued to be the most prestigious form of art, with Limoges enamel a popular and relatively affordable option for objects such as reliquaries and crosses. In Italy the innovations of Cimabue and Duccio, followed by the Trecento master Giotto (d. 1337), greatly increased the sophistication and status of panel painting and fresco. Increasing prosperity during the 12th century resulted in greater production of secular art; many carved ivory objects such as gaming-pieces, combs, and small religious figures have survived.

Question: Who noted that 14th century monks bought books in shops?


Answer: Metalwork

Question: What form of art had the most prestige in this era?


Answer: 1337

Question: When did Giotto die?


Answer: ivory

Question: What were many pieces of secular art carved from in this period?


Answer: Cimabue

Question: Along with Duccio, what Italian artist was a noted innovator in this period?


Answer: 11th

Context: Monastic reform became an important issue during the 11th century, as elites began to worry that monks were not adhering to the rules binding them to a strictly religious life. Cluny Abbey, founded in the Mâcon region of France in 909, was established as part of the Cluniac Reforms, a larger movement of monastic reform in response to this fear. Cluny quickly established a reputation for austerity and rigour. It sought to maintain a high quality of spiritual life by placing itself under the protection of the papacy and by electing its own abbot without interference from laymen, thus maintaining economic and political independence from local lords.

Question: In what century was thought given to monastic reform?


Answer: 909

Question: In what year was Cluny Abbey founded?


Answer: Mâcon

Question: In what part of France was Cluny Abbey founded?


Answer: austerity

Question: Along with rigor, what did Cluny have a reputation for?


Answer: Cluniac Reforms

Question: What reforms were named for the abbey at Cluny?


Answer: 11th

Context: Monastic reform inspired change in the secular church. The ideals that it was based upon were brought to the papacy by Pope Leo IX (pope 1049–1054), and provided the ideology of the clerical independence that led to the Investiture Controversy in the late 11th century. This involved Pope Gregory VII (pope 1073–85) and Emperor Henry IV, who initially clashed over episcopal appointments, a dispute that turned into a battle over the ideas of investiture, clerical marriage, and simony. The emperor saw the protection of the Church as one of his responsibilities as well as wanting to preserve the right to appoint his own choices as bishops within his lands, but the papacy insisted on the Church's independence from secular lords. These issues remained unresolved after the compromise of 1122 known as the Concordat of Worms. The dispute represents a significant stage in the creation of a papal monarchy separate from and equal to lay authorities. It also had the permanent consequence of empowering German princes at the expense of the German emperors.

Question: During what century did the Investiture Controversy occur?


Answer: 1049

Question: When did the reign of Pope Leo IX begin?


Answer: Pope Gregory VII

Question: What pope was involved in the Investiture Controversy?


Answer: 1122

Question: In what year was the Concordat of Worms agreed to?


Answer: German princes

Question: What secular rulers did the Concordat of Worms increase the power of?


Answer: Cistercians

Context: The High Middle Ages was a period of great religious movements. Besides the Crusades and monastic reforms, people sought to participate in new forms of religious life. New monastic orders were founded, including the Carthusians and the Cistercians. The latter especially expanded rapidly in their early years under the guidance of Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153). These new orders were formed in response to the feeling of the laity that Benedictine monasticism no longer met the needs of the laymen, who along with those wishing to enter the religious life wanted a return to the simpler hermetical monasticism of early Christianity, or to live an Apostolic life. Religious pilgrimages were also encouraged. Old pilgrimage sites such as Rome, Jerusalem, and Compostela received increasing numbers of visitors, and new sites such as Monte Gargano and Bari rose to prominence.

Question: What monastic order did Bernard of Clairvaux belong to?


Answer: 1153

Question: When did Bernard of Clairvaux die?


Answer: Monte Gargano

Question: Along with Bari, what was a notable new pilgrimage site in this era?


Answer: Compostela

Question: Along with Rome and Jerusalem, what traditional pilgrimage site saw a greater number of visitors in the High Middle Ages?


Answer: Carthusians

Question: Along with the Cistercians, what new monastic order was founded in the High Middle Ages?


Answer: Franciscans

Context: In the 13th century mendicant orders—the Franciscans and the Dominicans—who swore vows of poverty and earned their living by begging, were approved by the papacy. Religious groups such as the Waldensians and the Humiliati also attempted to return to the life of early Christianity in the middle 12th and early 13th centuries, but they were condemned as heretical by the papacy. Others joined the Cathars, another heretical movement condemned by the papacy. In 1209, a crusade was preached against the Cathars, the Albigensian Crusade, which in combination with the medieval Inquisition, eliminated them.

Question: Along with the Dominicans, what mendicant order was founded in the 13th century?


Answer: poverty

Question: What notable vow was sworn by the mendicant orders?


Answer: begging

Question: How did the mendicant orders make a living?


Answer: the Albigensian Crusade

Question: What was the crusade against the Cathars called?


Answer: the Waldensians

Question: Along with the Cathars and Humiliati, what group was notably condemned as heretics in this period?


Answer: 1315–17

Context: The first years of the 14th century were marked by famines, culminating in the Great Famine of 1315–17. The causes of the Great Famine included the slow transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age, which left the population vulnerable when bad weather caused crop failures. The years 1313–14 and 1317–21 were excessively rainy throughout Europe, resulting in widespread crop failures. The climate change—which resulted in a declining average annual temperature for Europe during the 14th century—was accompanied by an economic downturn.

Question: In what years did the Great Famine occur?


Answer: the Little Ice Age

Question: What period resulted in poor weather that increased crop failures?


Answer: the Medieval Warm Period

Question: What period preceded the Little Ice Age?


Answer: 1313–14

Question: Along with 1317–21, what span saw extreme rains in Europe?


Answer: 14th

Question: In what century did the European average annual temperature decrease?


Answer: 1347

Context: These troubles were followed in 1347 by the Black Death, a pandemic that spread throughout Europe during the following three years.[AC] The death toll was probably about 35 million people in Europe, about one-third of the population. Towns were especially hard-hit because of their crowded conditions.[AD] Large areas of land were left sparsely inhabited, and in some places fields were left unworked. Wages rose as landlords sought to entice the reduced number of available workers to their fields. Further problems were lower rents and lower demand for food, both of which cut into agricultural income. Urban workers also felt that they had a right to greater earnings, and popular uprisings broke out across Europe. Among the uprisings were the jacquerie in France, the Peasants' Revolt in England, and revolts in the cities of Florence in Italy and Ghent and Bruges in Flanders. The trauma of the plague led to an increased piety throughout Europe, manifested by the foundation of new charities, the self-mortification of the flagellants, and the scapegoating of Jews. Conditions were further unsettled by the return of the plague throughout the rest of the 14th century; it continued to strike Europe periodically during the rest of the Middle Ages.

Question: When did the Black Death start?


Answer: 35

Question: How many million people died from the Black Death?


Answer: the jacquerie

Question: What popular uprising occurred in France during this period?


Answer: the Peasants' Revolt

Question: What English popular revolt took place during this period?


Answer: Florence

Question: What Italian city experienced a popular revolt?


Answer: 50

Context: Society throughout Europe was disturbed by the dislocations caused by the Black Death. Lands that had been marginally productive were abandoned, as the survivors were able to acquire more fertile areas. Although serfdom declined in Western Europe it became more common in Eastern Europe, as landlords imposed it on those of their tenants who had previously been free. Most peasants in Western Europe managed to change the work they had previously owed to their landlords into cash rents. The percentage of serfs amongst the peasantry declined from a high of 90 to closer to 50 per cent by the end of the period. Landlords also became more conscious of common interests with other landholders, and they joined together to extort privileges from their governments. Partly at the urging of landlords, governments attempted to legislate a return to the economic conditions that existed before the Black Death. Non-clergy became increasingly literate, and urban populations began to imitate the nobility's interest in chivalry.

Question: By the end of this period, about what percentage of Western Europeans were serfs?


Answer: 90

Question: At serfdom's greatest extent, what percentage of Western Europeans were serfs?


Answer: Eastern

Question: In what part of Europe did serfdom increase in this period?


Answer: cash rents

Question: Instead of work, how did most Western European peasants pay their landlords in this period?


Answer: chivalry

Question: What noble interest did city-dwellers start to mimic in this period?


Answer: 1290

Context: Jewish communities were expelled from England in 1290 and from France in 1306. Although some were allowed back into France, most were not, and many Jews emigrated eastwards, settling in Poland and Hungary. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and dispersed to Turkey, France, Italy, and Holland. The rise of banking in Italy during the 13th century continued throughout the 14th century, fuelled partly by the increasing warfare of the period and the needs of the papacy to move money between kingdoms. Many banking firms loaned money to royalty, at great risk, as some were bankrupted when kings defaulted on their loans.[AE]

Question: In what year were the Jews expelled from England?


Answer: 1306

Question: What year saw the expulsion of the French Jewish community?


Answer: Poland

Question: Along with Hungary, where did many expelled French Jews relocate to?


Answer: 1492

Question: In what year were Jews kicked out of Spain?


Answer: Holland

Question: Along with Turkey, France and Italy, where did expelled Spanish Jews travel to?


Answer: Portugal

Context: Strong, royalty-based nation states rose throughout Europe in the Late Middle Ages, particularly in England, France, and the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula: Aragon, Castile, and Portugal. The long conflicts of the period strengthened royal control over their kingdoms and were extremely hard on the peasantry. Kings profited from warfare that extended royal legislation and increased the lands they directly controlled. Paying for the wars required that methods of taxation become more effective and efficient, and the rate of taxation often increased. The requirement to obtain the consent of taxpayers allowed representative bodies such as the English Parliament and the French Estates General to gain power and authority.

Question: Along with Aragon and Castile, what Christian kingdom was present on the Iberian Peninsula?


Answer: Paying for the wars

Question: Why did kings increase the tax rate during this period?


Answer: Parliament

Question: What English representative body provided consent for royal taxation?


Answer: Estates General

Question: What French body was similar in purpose to the English Parliament?


Answer: the peasantry

Question: What social class was harmed by the lengthy wars of this era?


Answer: 1337

Context: Throughout the 14th century, French kings sought to expand their influence at the expense of the territorial holdings of the nobility. They ran into difficulties when attempting to confiscate the holdings of the English kings in southern France, leading to the Hundred Years' War, waged from 1337 to 1453. Early in the war the English under Edward III (r. 1327–77) and his son Edward, the Black Prince (d. 1376),[AF] won the battles of Crécy and Poitiers, captured the city of Calais, and won control of much of France.[AG] The resulting stresses almost caused the disintegration of the French kingdom during the early years of the war. In the early 15th century, France again came close to dissolving, but in the late 1420s the military successes of Joan of Arc (d. 1431) led to the victory of the French and the capture of the last English possessions in southern France in 1453. The price was high, as the population of France at the end of the Wars was likely half what it had been at the start of the conflict. Conversely, the Wars had a positive effect on English national identity, doing much to fuse the various local identities into a national English ideal. The conflict with France also helped create a national culture in England separate from French culture, which had previously been the dominant influence. The dominance of the English longbow began during early stages of the Hundred Years' War, and cannon appeared on the battlefield at Crécy in 1346.

Question: When did the Hundred Years' War begin?


Answer: the Black Prince

Question: What was the nickname of Edward III's son Edward?


Answer: 1327

Question: When did the reign of Edward III begin?


Answer: Crécy

Question: Along with Poitiers, what was the site of a notable victory by Edward III's England over the French?


Answer: 1420s

Question: What decade saw the victories of Joan of Arc?


Answer: Bohemia

Context: In modern-day Germany, the Holy Roman Empire continued to rule, but the elective nature of the imperial crown meant there was no enduring dynasty around which a strong state could form. Further east, the kingdoms of Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia grew powerful. In Iberia, the Christian kingdoms continued to gain land from the Muslim kingdoms of the peninsula; Portugal concentrated on expanding overseas during the 15th century, while the other kingdoms were riven by difficulties over royal succession and other concerns. After losing the Hundred Years' War, England went on to suffer a long civil war known as the Wars of the Roses, which lasted into the 1490s and only ended when Henry Tudor (r. 1485–1509 as Henry VII) became king and consolidated power with his victory over Richard III (r. 1483–85) at Bosworth in 1485. In Scandinavia, Margaret I of Denmark (r. in Denmark 1387–1412) consolidated Norway, Denmark, and Sweden in the Union of Kalmar, which continued until 1523. The major power around the Baltic Sea was the Hanseatic League, a commercial confederation of city states that traded from Western Europe to Russia. Scotland emerged from English domination under Robert the Bruce (r. 1306–29), who secured papal recognition of his kingship in 1328.

Question: Along with Poland and Hungary, what Eastern European state grew in power?


Answer: 15th

Question: During what century did Portugal devote itself to overseas expansion?


Answer: England

Question: What nation lost the Hundred Years' War?


Answer: Henry VII

Question: What was the regnal name of Henry Tudor?


Answer: Norway

Question: Along with Denmark and Sweden, what country was part of the Union of Kalmar?


Answer: Palaeologi

Context: Although the Palaeologi emperors recaptured Constantinople from the Western Europeans in 1261, they were never able to regain control of much of the former imperial lands. They usually controlled only a small section of the Balkan Peninsula near Constantinople, the city itself, and some coastal lands on the Black Sea and around the Aegean Sea. The former Byzantine lands in the Balkans were divided between the new Kingdom of Serbia, the Second Bulgarian Empire and the city-state of Venice. The power of the Byzantine emperors was threatened by a new Turkish tribe, the Ottomans, who established themselves in Anatolia in the 13th century and steadily expanded throughout the 14th century. The Ottomans expanded into Europe, reducing Bulgaria to a vassal state by 1366 and taking over Serbia after its defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Western Europeans rallied to the plight of the Christians in the Balkans and declared a new crusade in 1396; a great army was sent to the Balkans, where it was defeated at the Battle of Nicopolis. Constantinople was finally captured by the Ottomans in 1453.

Question: Emperors from what dynasty recaptured Constantinople in 1261?


Answer: Venice

Question: Along with the Second Bulgarian Empire and the Kingdom of Serbia, what polity controlled the former Byzantine Balkan lands?


Answer: Ottomans

Question: What tribe of Turks emerged in 13th century Anatolia?


Answer: 1366

Question: In what year did Bulgaria become a vassal of the Ottomans?


Answer: Serbia

Question: Who was defeated at the Battle of Kosovo?


Answer: 1305–78

Context: During the tumultuous 14th century, disputes within the leadership of the Church led to the Avignon Papacy of 1305–78, also called the "Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy" (a reference to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews), and then to the Great Schism, lasting from 1378 to 1418, when there were two and later three rival popes, each supported by several states. Ecclesiastical officials convened at the Council of Constance in 1414, and in the following year the council deposed one of the rival popes, leaving only two claimants. Further depositions followed, and in November 1417 the council elected Martin V (pope 1417–31) as pope.

Question: During what years did the Avignon Papacy occur?


Answer: Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy

Question: What is another term for the Avignon Papacy?


Answer: 1418

Question: When did the Great Schism end?


Answer: two

Question: How many popes existed simultaneously after the Council of Constance?


Answer: Martin V

Question: Who was made pope in 1417?


Answer: English

Context: Besides the schism, the western church was riven by theological controversies, some of which turned into heresies. John Wycliffe (d. 1384), an English theologian, was condemned as a heretic in 1415 for teaching that the laity should have access to the text of the Bible as well as for holding views on the Eucharist that were contrary to church doctrine. Wycliffe's teachings influenced two of the major heretical movements of the later Middle Ages: Lollardy in England and Hussitism in Bohemia. The Bohemian movement initiated with the teaching of Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415 after being condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constance. The Hussite church, although the target of a crusade, survived beyond the Middle Ages. Other heresies were manufactured, such as the accusations against the Knights Templar that resulted in their suppression in 1312 and the division of their great wealth between the French King Philip IV (r. 1285–1314) and the Hospitallers.

Question: Of what nationality was John Wycliffe?


Answer: 1415

Question: In what year was Wycliffe declared a heretic?


Answer: the laity

Question: Who did Wycliffe believe should read the Bible?


Answer: Hussitism

Question: What Bohemian movement was influenced by Wycliffe?


Answer: burned at the stake

Question: How did Jan Hus die?


Answer: the clergy

Context: The papacy further refined the practice in the Mass in the Late Middle Ages, holding that the clergy alone was allowed to partake of the wine in the Eucharist. This further distanced the secular laity from the clergy. The laity continued the practices of pilgrimages, veneration of relics, and belief in the power of the Devil. Mystics such as Meister Eckhart (d. 1327) and Thomas à Kempis (d. 1471) wrote works that taught the laity to focus on their inner spiritual life, which laid the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation. Besides mysticism, belief in witches and witchcraft became widespread, and by the late 15th century the Church had begun to lend credence to populist fears of witchcraft with its condemnation of witches in 1484 and the publication in 1486 of the Malleus Maleficarum, the most popular handbook for witch-hunters.

Question: In the Late Middle Ages, who was allowed to drink wine at Mass?


Answer: 1471

Question: When did Thomas à Kempis die?


Answer: 1484

Question: In what year did the Church condemn witches?


Answer: 1486

Question: In what year was the Malleus Maleficarum published?


Answer: handbook for witch-hunters

Question: What was the Malleus Maleficarum?


Answer: scholasticism

Context: During the Later Middle Ages, theologians such as John Duns Scotus (d. 1308)[AH] and William of Ockham (d. c. 1348), led a reaction against scholasticism, objecting to the application of reason to faith. Their efforts undermined the prevailing Platonic idea of "universals". Ockham's insistence that reason operates independently of faith allowed science to be separated from theology and philosophy. Legal studies were marked by the steady advance of Roman law into areas of jurisprudence previously governed by customary law. The lone exception to this trend was in England, where the common law remained pre-eminent. Other countries codified their laws; legal codes were promulgated in Castile, Poland, and Lithuania.

Question: What school of thought was Duns Scotus opposed to?


Answer: customary law

Question: Before Roman law, what were areas of jurisprudence traditionally decided by?


Answer: England

Question: What country did not see the increasing influence of Roman law?


Answer: Lithuania

Question: Along with Castile and Poland, what country developed a law code in the Later Middle Ages?


Answer: universals

Question: What Platonic idea lost influence as a result of the work of Ockham and Duns Scotus?


Answer: training of future clergy

Context: Education remained mostly focused on the training of future clergy. The basic learning of the letters and numbers remained the province of the family or a village priest, but the secondary subjects of the trivium—grammar, rhetoric, logic—were studied in cathedral schools or in schools provided by cities. Commercial secondary schools spread, and some Italian towns had more than one such enterprise. Universities also spread throughout Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Lay literacy rates rose, but were still low; one estimate gave a literacy rate of ten per cent of males and one per cent of females in 1500.

Question: What was the main purpose of education in this period?


Answer: grammar

Question: Along with rhetoric and logic, what constituted the trivium?


Answer: ten

Question: About what percentage of European men were literate in 1500?


Answer: one

Question: In 1500, approximately what percent of European women could read?


Answer: a village priest

Question: Along with their family, who typically taught a child letters and numbers?


Answer: Petrarch

Context: The publication of vernacular literature increased, with Dante (d. 1321), Petrarch (d. 1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (d. 1375) in 14th-century Italy, Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400) and William Langland (d. c. 1386) in England, and François Villon (d. 1464) and Christine de Pizan (d. c. 1430) in France. Much literature remained religious in character, and although a great deal of it continued to be written in Latin, a new demand developed for saints' lives and other devotional tracts in the vernacular languages. This was fed by the growth of the Devotio Moderna movement, most prominently in the formation of the Brethren of the Common Life, but also in the works of German mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler (d. 1361). Theatre also developed in the guise of miracle plays put on by the Church. At the end of the period, the development of the printing press in about 1450 led to the establishment of publishing houses throughout Europe by 1500.

Question: Along with Dante and Boccaccio, who was a notable Italian author of the 14th century?


Answer: 1400

Question: When did Chaucer die?


Answer: Christine de Pizan

Question: Who was a notable female French author of this period?


Answer: Latin

Question: In what language was most religious literature of this period written?


Answer: Meister Eckhart

Question: Along with Johannes Tauler, who was a prominent German mystic of this period?


Answer: Portugal

Context: In the early 15th century, the countries of the Iberian peninsula began to sponsor exploration beyond the boundaries of Europe. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (d. 1460) sent expeditions that discovered the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Cape Verde during his lifetime. After his death, exploration continued; Bartolomeu Dias (d. 1500) went around the Cape of Good Hope in 1486 and Vasco da Gama (d. 1524) sailed around Africa to India in 1498. The combined Spanish monarchies of Castile and Aragon sponsored the voyage of exploration by Christopher Columbus (d. 1506) in 1492 that discovered the Americas. The English crown under Henry VII sponsored the voyage of John Cabot (d. 1498) in 1497, which landed on Cape Breton Island.

Question: Explorers in the employ of what nation discovered the Azores?


Answer: Prince Henry the Navigator

Question: What leader sponsored the expedition that discovered Cape Verde?


Answer: Vasco da Gama

Question: What Portuguese explorer visited India in 1498?


Answer: the Americas

Question: What did Christopher Columbus discover in 1492?


Answer: Henry VII

Question: What English monarch financed John Cabot?


Answer: infantry

Context: One of the major developments in the military sphere during the Late Middle Ages was the increased use of infantry and light cavalry. The English also employed longbowmen, but other countries were unable to create similar forces with the same success. Armour continued to advance, spurred by the increasing power of crossbows, and plate armour was developed to protect soldiers from crossbows as well as the hand-held guns that were developed. Pole arms reached new prominence with the development of the Flemish and Swiss infantry armed with pikes and other long spears.

Question: Along with light cavalry, what military arm was used with increasing frequency in the Late Middle Ages?


Answer: longbowmen

Question: What troops were uniquely successful in English service?


Answer: the increasing power of crossbows

Question: What influenced the increasing development of armor?


Answer: pikes

Question: What weapons were notably employed by the Swiss infantry?


Answer: hand-held guns

Question: Along with crossbows, what was plate armor designed to defend against?


Answer: the traditional distaff

Context: In agriculture, the increased usage of sheep with long-fibred wool allowed a stronger thread to be spun. In addition, the spinning wheel replaced the traditional distaff for spinning wool, tripling production.[AI] A less technological refinement that still greatly affected daily life was the use of buttons as closures for garments, which allowed for better fitting without having to lace clothing on the wearer. Windmills were refined with the creation of the tower mill, allowing the upper part of the windmill to be spun around to face the direction from which the wind was blowing. The blast furnace appeared around 1350 in Sweden, increasing the quantity of iron produced and improving its quality. The first patent law in 1447 in Venice protected the rights of inventors to their inventions.

Question: What was replaced by the spinning wheel?


Answer: buttons

Question: What invention replaced laces on clothing?


Answer: the tower mill

Question: What new type of windmill was invented in this period?


Answer: Sweden

Question: In what country did the blast furnace first appear?


Answer: Venice

Question: Where did patent law originate?


Answer: 1400

Context: The Late Middle Ages in Europe as a whole correspond to the Trecento and Early Renaissance cultural periods in Italy. Northern Europe and Spain continued to use Gothic styles, which became increasingly elaborate in the 15th century, until almost the end of the period. International Gothic was a courtly style that reached much of Europe in the decades around 1400, producing masterpieces such as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. All over Europe secular art continued to increase in quantity and quality, and in the 15th century the mercantile classes of Italy and Flanders became important patrons, commissioning small portraits of themselves in oils as well as a growing range of luxury items such as jewellery, ivory caskets, cassone chests, and maiolica pottery. These objects also included the Hispano-Moresque ware produced by mostly Mudéjar potters in Spain. Although royalty owned huge collections of plate, little survives except for the Royal Gold Cup. Italian silk manufacture developed, so that western churches and elites no longer needed to rely on imports from Byzantium or the Islamic world. In France and Flanders tapestry weaving of sets like The Lady and the Unicorn became a major luxury industry.

Question: Around what year did the International Gothic style flourish?


Answer: the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Question: What is a notable masterpiece of the International Gothic style?


Answer: Early Renaissance

Question: Along with the Trecento, what period occurred in Italy during the Late Middle Ages?


Answer: Mudéjar potters

Question: Who produced most of the Hispano-Moresque pottery?


Answer: the Royal Gold Cup

Question: What is a notable piece of surviving Late Middle Age royal plate?


Answer: Giovanni Pisano

Context: The large external sculptural schemes of Early Gothic churches gave way to more sculpture inside the building, as tombs became more elaborate and other features such as pulpits were sometimes lavishly carved, as in the Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in Sant'Andrea. Painted or carved wooden relief altarpieces became common, especially as churches created many side-chapels. Early Netherlandish painting by artists such as Jan van Eyck (d. 1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (d. 1464) rivalled that of Italy, as did northern illuminated manuscripts, which in the 15th century began to be collected on a large scale by secular elites, who also commissioned secular books, especially histories. From about 1450 printed books rapidly became popular, though still expensive. There were around 30,000 different editions of incunabula, or works printed before 1500, by which time illuminated manuscripts were commissioned only by royalty and a few others. Very small woodcuts, nearly all religious, were affordable even by peasants in parts of Northern Europe from the middle of the 15th century. More expensive engravings supplied a wealthier market with a variety of images.

Question: Who carved the Pulpit in Sant'Andrea?


Answer: Painted

Question: Along with being carved, how were altarpieces often decorated in this period?


Answer: 1464

Question: When did Rogier van der Weyden die?


Answer: Netherlandish

Question: Of what nationality was Jan van Eyck?


Answer: works printed before 1500

Question: What does incunabula refer to?


Answer: Enlightenment

Context: The medieval period is frequently caricatured as a "time of ignorance and superstition" that placed "the word of religious authorities over personal experience and rational activity." This is a legacy from both the Renaissance and Enlightenment, when scholars contrasted their intellectual cultures with those of the medieval period, to the detriment of the Middle Ages. Renaissance scholars saw the Middle Ages as a period of decline from the high culture and civilisation of the Classical world; Enlightenment scholars saw reason as superior to faith, and thus viewed the Middle Ages as a time of ignorance and superstition.

Question: Along with the Renaissance, during what period were the Middle Ages disparaged?


Answer: the Classical world

Question: What era did Renaissance scholars negatively compare the Middle Ages to?


Answer: as a time of ignorance and superstition

Question: How did scholars of the Enlightenment see the Middle Ages?


Answer: faith

Question: What did Enlightenment scholars consider to be inferior to reason?


Answer: Science

Context: Others argue that reason was generally held in high regard during the Middle Ages. Science historian Edward Grant writes, "If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed [in the 18th century], they were only made possible because of the long medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities". Also, contrary to common belief, David Lindberg writes, "the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led".

Question: What is Edward Grant a historian of?


Answer: David Lindberg

Question: Who argued that scholars in the Middle Ages were rarely coerced by the Church?


Answer: 18th

Question: According to Grant, the medieval use of reason was the forerunner the revolutionary rationalism of what century?


Answer: 19th

Context: The caricature of the period is also reflected in some more specific notions. One misconception, first propagated in the 19th century and still very common, is that all people in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat. This is untrue, as lecturers in the medieval universities commonly argued that evidence showed the Earth was a sphere. Lindberg and Ronald Numbers, another scholar of the period, state that there "was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference". Other misconceptions such as "the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages", "the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science", or "the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of natural philosophy", are all cited by Numbers as examples of widely popular myths that still pass as historical truth, although they are not supported by current historical research.

Question: During what century was it first proposed that people in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat?


Answer: dissections

Question: Along with autopsies, what is it erroneously believed that the medieval Church forbade?


Answer: ancient science

Question: According to a misconception, what did the rise of Christianity destroy?


Answer: natural philosophy

Question: According to another misconception, what field of study was the medieval Church opposed to?


Answer: Ronald Numbers

Question: Along with Lindberg, who is a notable scholar of the Middle Ages?


Answer: linguistics

Context: Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages. It has traditionally focused largely on the study of the systems of phonemes in particular languages (and therefore used to be also called phonemics, or phonematics), but it may also cover any linguistic analysis either at a level beneath the word (including syllable, onset and rime, articulatory gestures, articulatory features, mora, etc.) or at all levels of language where sound is considered to be structured for conveying linguistic meaning. Phonology also includes the study of equivalent organizational systems in sign languages.

Question: What is phonology a branch of?


Answer: phonemes

Question: What kind of systems are the traditional focus of phonology?


Answer: Phonology

Question: The study of sign language is a part of what?


Answer: the phonological system

Context: The word phonology (as in the phonology of English) can also refer to the phonological system (sound system) of a given language. This is one of the fundamental systems which a language is considered to comprise, like its syntax and its vocabulary.

Question: What part of a language can phonology as a word also refer to?


Answer: sound system

Question: What is another term for phonological system?


Answer: vocabulary

Question: Aside from syntax and the phonological system, what else comprises a language?


Answer: fundamental

Question: What sort of language system is phonology?


Answer: phonetics

Context: Phonology is often distinguished from phonetics. While phonetics concerns the physical production, acoustic transmission and perception of the sounds of speech, phonology describes the way sounds function within a given language or across languages to encode meaning. For many linguists, phonetics belongs to descriptive linguistics, and phonology to theoretical linguistics, although establishing the phonological system of a language is necessarily an application of theoretical principles to analysis of phonetic evidence. Note that this distinction was not always made, particularly before the development of the modern concept of the phoneme in the mid 20th century. Some subfields of modern phonology have a crossover with phonetics in descriptive disciplines such as psycholinguistics and speech perception, resulting in specific areas like articulatory phonology or laboratory phonology.

Question: What branch of linguistics is phonology distinguished from?


Answer: descriptive

Question: What kind of linguistics is phonetics considered to be a part of?


Answer: linguistics

Question: Phonology is generally considered a part of the theoretical side of what discipline?


Answer: mid 20th century

Question: When was the phonome's modern concept developed?


Answer: speech perception

Question: What subfield of modern phonology other than phsycholinguistics crosses over with phonetics?


Answer: Greek

Context: The word phonology comes from the Greek φωνή, phōnḗ, "voice, sound," and the suffix -logy (which is from Greek λόγος, lógos, "word, speech, subject of discussion"). Definitions of the term vary. Nikolai Trubetzkoy in Grundzüge der Phonologie (1939) defines phonology as "the study of sound pertaining to the system of language," as opposed to phonetics, which is "the study of sound pertaining to the act of speech" (the distinction between language and speech being basically Saussure's distinction between langue and parole). More recently, Lass (1998) writes that phonology refers broadly to the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language, while in more narrow terms, "phonology proper is concerned with the function, behavior and organization of sounds as linguistic items." According to Clark et al. (2007), it means the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use.

Question: What language does phonology as a word come from?


Answer: lógos

Question: What Greek word is -logy derived from?


Answer: Nikolai Trubetzkoy

Question: Who in 1939 defined phonology?


Answer: speech

Question: A distinction was drawn between language and what?


Answer: 1998

Question: When did Lass write about phonology?


Answer: Sanskrit

Context: The history of phonology may be traced back to the Ashtadhyayi, the Sanskrit grammar composed by Pāṇini in the 4th century BC. In particular the Shiva Sutras, an auxiliary text to the Ashtadhyayi, introduces what can be considered a list of the phonemes of the Sanskrit language, with a notational system for them that is used throughout the main text, which deals with matters of morphology, syntax and semantics.

Question: What type of grammar was phonology first a part of?


Answer: Ashtadhyayi

Question: What is the name of ancient Sanskrit grammar?


Answer: Pāṇini

Question: Who first composed the Ashtadhyayi?


Answer: 4th century BC

Question: During what time period did Panini do his work?


Answer: the Shiva Sutras

Question: What other text was related to the Ashtadhyayi?


Answer: 1876

Context: The Polish scholar Jan Baudouin de Courtenay (together with his former student Mikołaj Kruszewski) introduced the concept of the phoneme in 1876, and his work, though often unacknowledged, is considered to be the starting point of modern phonology. He also worked on the theory of phonetic alternations (what is now called allophony and morphophonology), and had a significant influence on the work of Ferdinand de Saussure.

Question: When was the phoneme as a concept introduced?


Answer: Mikołaj Kruszewski

Question: Who was Jan Baudouin de Courtenay's student?


Answer: Polish

Question: What nationality was de Courtenay?


Answer: scholar

Question: What was de Courtenay's profession?


Answer: Ferdinand de Saussure

Question: Who was influenced by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay?


Answer: Principles of Phonology

Context: An influential school of phonology in the interwar period was the Prague school. One of its leading members was Prince Nikolai Trubetzkoy, whose Grundzüge der Phonologie (Principles of Phonology), published posthumously in 1939, is among the most important works in the field from this period. Directly influenced by Baudouin de Courtenay, Trubetzkoy is considered the founder of morphophonology, although this concept had also been recognized by de Courtenay. Trubetzkoy also developed the concept of the archiphoneme. Another important figure in the Prague school was Roman Jakobson, who was one of the most prominent linguists of the 20th century.

Question: What was Nikolai Trubetzkoy's publication?


Answer: 1939

Question: When was Principles of Phonology published?


Answer: morphophonology

Question: What is Trubetzkoy considered to have founded?


Answer: the Prague school.

Question: What school was Trubetzkoy a member of?


Answer: Prince

Question: What was Trubetzkoy's title?


Answer: 1968

Context: In 1968 Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle published The Sound Pattern of English (SPE), the basis for generative phonology. In this view, phonological representations are sequences of segments made up of distinctive features. These features were an expansion of earlier work by Roman Jakobson, Gunnar Fant, and Morris Halle. The features describe aspects of articulation and perception, are from a universally fixed set, and have the binary values + or −. There are at least two levels of representation: underlying representation and surface phonetic representation. Ordered phonological rules govern how underlying representation is transformed into the actual pronunciation (the so-called surface form). An important consequence of the influence SPE had on phonological theory was the downplaying of the syllable and the emphasis on segments. Furthermore, the generativists folded morphophonology into phonology, which both solved and created problems.

Question: When was The Sound Pattern of English published?


Answer: Morris Halle

Question: Other than Chomsky who else published The Sound Pattern of English?


Answer: emphasis on segments

Question: Besides the syllable what was downplayed as a result of SPE's influence on phonological theory?


Answer: morphophonology

Question: What other discipline was combined with phonology by the generativists?


Answer: David Stampe

Context: Natural phonology is a theory based on the publications of its proponent David Stampe in 1969 and (more explicitly) in 1979. In this view, phonology is based on a set of universal phonological processes that interact with one another; which ones are active and which are suppressed is language-specific. Rather than acting on segments, phonological processes act on distinctive features within prosodic groups. Prosodic groups can be as small as a part of a syllable or as large as an entire utterance. Phonological processes are unordered with respect to each other and apply simultaneously (though the output of one process may be the input to another). The second most prominent natural phonologist is Patricia Donegan (Stampe's wife); there are many natural phonologists in Europe, and a few in the U.S., such as Geoffrey Nathan. The principles of natural phonology were extended to morphology by Wolfgang U. Dressler, who founded natural morphology.

Question: Whose publications started the theory of Natural phonology?


Answer: a set of universal phonological processes

Question: According to Stampe what is phonology based on?


Answer: suppressed

Question: Aside from being active what other condition can the universal phonological processes exist in?


Answer: Patricia Donegan

Question: Who is the number two natural phonologist?


Answer: Wolfgang U. Dressler

Question: Who was the founder of natural morphology?


Answer: John Goldsmith

Context: In 1976 John Goldsmith introduced autosegmental phonology. Phonological phenomena are no longer seen as operating on one linear sequence of segments, called phonemes or feature combinations, but rather as involving some parallel sequences of features which reside on multiple tiers. Autosegmental phonology later evolved into feature geometry, which became the standard theory of representation for theories of the organization of phonology as different as lexical phonology and optimality theory.

Question: Who founded autosegmental phonology?


Answer: 1976

Question: When did John Goldsmith share his work?


Answer: feature geometry

Question: What did Autosegmental phonology morph into?


Answer: the early 1980s

Context: Government phonology, which originated in the early 1980s as an attempt to unify theoretical notions of syntactic and phonological structures, is based on the notion that all languages necessarily follow a small set of principles and vary according to their selection of certain binary parameters. That is, all languages' phonological structures are essentially the same, but there is restricted variation that accounts for differences in surface realizations. Principles are held to be inviolable, though parameters may sometimes come into conflict. Prominent figures in this field include Jonathan Kaye, Jean Lowenstamm, Jean-Roger Vergnaud, Monik Charette, and John Harris.

Question: When was Government phonology first seen?


Answer: restricted variation

Question: What is responsible for differences in surface realizations according to Government phonology?


Answer: Government

Question: Jonathan Kaye is an important person in what form of phonology?


Answer: 1991

Context: In a course at the LSA summer institute in 1991, Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky developed optimality theory—an overall architecture for phonology according to which languages choose a pronunciation of a word that best satisfies a list of constraints ordered by importance; a lower-ranked constraint can be violated when the violation is necessary in order to obey a higher-ranked constraint. The approach was soon extended to morphology by John McCarthy and Alan Prince, and has become a dominant trend in phonology. The appeal to phonetic grounding of constraints and representational elements (e.g. features) in various approaches has been criticized by proponents of 'substance-free phonology', especially Mark Hale and Charles Reiss.

Question: When did Prince and Smolensky develop their theory?


Answer: LSA summer institute

Question: Where was optimality theory created?


Answer: John McCarthy

Question: Aside from Alan Prince who brought optimality theory to morphology?


Answer: Mark Hale and Charles Reiss

Question: Who were prominent critics of optimality theory?


Answer: strict-CV phonology

Context: Broadly speaking, government phonology (or its descendant, strict-CV phonology) has a greater following in the United Kingdom, whereas optimality theory is predominant in the United States.[citation needed]

Question: What followed government phonology?


Answer: the United Kingdom,

Question: Where is government phonology popular?


Answer: optimality theory

Question: What theory is seen more in the US?


Answer: phonological theory

Context: An integrated approach to phonological theory that combines synchronic and diachronic accounts to sound patterns was initiated with Evolutionary Phonology in recent years.

Question: What is Evolutionary Phonology an integrated approach to?


Answer: synchronic and diachronic accounts

Question: What is combined to sound patterns by Evolutionary Phonology?


Answer: recent years.

Question: When did Evolutionary Phonology come into being?


Answer: integrated

Question: What sort of approach did Evolutionary Phonology take?


Answer: phonemes

Context: An important part of traditional, pre-generative schools of phonology is studying which sounds can be grouped into distinctive units within a language; these units are known as phonemes. For example, in English, the "p" sound in pot is aspirated (pronounced [pʰ]) while that in spot is not aspirated (pronounced [p]). However, English speakers intuitively treat both sounds as variations (allophones) of the same phonological category, that is of the phoneme /p/. (Traditionally, it would be argued that if an aspirated [pʰ] were interchanged with the unaspirated [p] in spot, native speakers of English would still hear the same words; that is, the two sounds are perceived as "the same" /p/.) In some other languages, however, these two sounds are perceived as different, and they are consequently assigned to different phonemes. For example, in Thai, Hindi, and Quechua, there are minimal pairs of words for which aspiration is the only contrasting feature (two words can have different meanings but with the only difference in pronunciation being that one has an aspirated sound where the other has an unaspirated one).

Question: What are the units called that traditional phonology studies?


Answer: allophones

Question: What is another word for variations?


Answer: unaspirated

Question: What is the opposite of aspirated?


Answer: phonological

Context: Part of the phonological study of a language therefore involves looking at data (phonetic transcriptions of the speech of native speakers) and trying to deduce what the underlying phonemes are and what the sound inventory of the language is. The presence or absence of minimal pairs, as mentioned above, is a frequently used criterion for deciding whether two sounds should be assigned to the same phoneme. However, other considerations often need to be taken into account as well.

Question: What type of language study involves trying to deduce underlying phonomes?


Answer: sound inventory

Question: Aside from finding out what underlying phonemes are there what does the phonological study of a language try to find out about the language?


Answer: native

Question: What kind of speaker data does studying a language phonologically involve examining?


Answer: historical

Context: The particular contrasts which are phonemic in a language can change over time. At one time, [f] and [v], two sounds that have the same place and manner of articulation and differ in voicing only, were allophones of the same phoneme in English, but later came to belong to separate phonemes. This is one of the main factors of historical change of languages as described in historical linguistics.

Question: What kind of linguistics describes how factors of languages change in history?


Answer: contrasts

Question: With the passage of time what particular things phonemic in a language are known to change?


Answer: the same phoneme

Question: In the past sounds that now belong to separate phonemes were allophones of what kind of phoneme in English?


Answer: complicate

Context: The findings and insights of speech perception and articulation research complicate the traditional and somewhat intuitive idea of interchangeable allophones being perceived as the same phoneme. First, interchanged allophones of the same phoneme can result in unrecognizable words. Second, actual speech, even at a word level, is highly co-articulated, so it is problematic to expect to be able to splice words into simple segments without affecting speech perception.

Question: How do speech perception and articulation findings and insights affect previous and more traditional ideas?


Answer: unrecognizable

Question: How does interchanging allophones of the same pheneme render words?


Answer: speech perception

Question: What does splicing words affect?


Answer: sounds

Context: Different linguists therefore take different approaches to the problem of assigning sounds to phonemes. For example, they differ in the extent to which they require allophones to be phonetically similar. There are also differing ideas as to whether this grouping of sounds is purely a tool for linguistic analysis, or reflects an actual process in the way the human brain processes a language.

Question: What are assigned to phonemes by different linguists?


Answer: brain

Question: What part of a human does language processing?


Answer: allophones

Question: The phonetical similarity of what thing causes disagreements between linguists?


Answer: early 1960s

Context: Since the early 1960s, theoretical linguists have moved away from the traditional concept of a phoneme, preferring to consider basic units at a more abstract level, as a component of morphemes; these units can be called morphophonemes, and analysis using this approach is called morphophonology.

Question: When did theoretical linguists turn away traditional phoneme concepts?


Answer: abstract

Question: On what level do theoretical linguists consider basic units?


Answer: morphophonemes

Question: What is a name for the basic morpheme unit?


Answer: morphophonology

Question: What is the act of analyzing morphophones called?


Answer: theoretical

Question: What kind of linguists are leaving the old methods behind?


Answer: meaning

Context: In addition to the minimal units that can serve the purpose of differentiating meaning (the phonemes), phonology studies how sounds alternate, i.e. replace one another in different forms of the same morpheme (allomorphs), as well as, for example, syllable structure, stress, feature geometry, accent, and intonation.

Question: What do phonemes differentiate?


Answer: how sounds alternate

Question: Aside from phonemes what is studied by phonology?


Answer: phonology

Question: The study of syllable structure is part of what discipline?


Answer: prosody

Context: Phonology also includes topics such as phonotactics (the phonological constraints on what sounds can appear in what positions in a given language) and phonological alternation (how the pronunciation of a sound changes through the application of phonological rules, sometimes in a given order which can be feeding or bleeding,) as well as prosody, the study of suprasegmentals and topics such as stress and intonation.

Question: Under what topic is suprasegmentals studied?


Answer: feeding

Question: Aside from bleeding what is an order of rules that define how pronunciation of a sound changes?


Answer: Phonology

Question: Phonotactics, phonological alternation and prosody are topics contained in what discipline?


Answer: prosody

Question: Stress and intonation are studied under what topic?


Answer: general analytical tools

Context: The principles of phonological analysis can be applied independently of modality because they are designed to serve as general analytical tools, not language-specific ones. The same principles have been applied to the analysis of sign languages (see Phonemes in sign languages), even though the sub-lexical units are not instantiated as speech sounds.

Question: Instead of being language-specific what kind of tools are the principles of phonological analysis designed to be?


Answer: sign languages

Question: What other types of language have the phonological analysis principles been applied to?


Answer: modality

Question: What are the principles of phonological analysis able to be applied separately from?


Answer: sub-lexical units

Question: In sign languages what are not represented as instances of speech sounds?


Answer: central processing unit

Context: Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU), and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and the result of operations saved and retrieved.

Question: In computer terms, what does CPU stand for?


Answer: Peripheral devices

Question: What are the devices called that are from an external source?


Answer: (CPU), and some form of memory

Question: What are two things that a computer always has?


Answer: astronomical calculations

Context: Mechanical analog computers started appearing in the first century and were later used in the medieval era for astronomical calculations. In World War II, mechanical analog computers were used for specialized military applications such as calculating torpedo aiming. During this time the first electronic digital computers were developed. Originally they were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs).

Question: What were analog computers originally used for?


Answer: World War II,

Question: During what war were computers first used for military applications?


Answer: personal computers

Question: In computer terms, what does PC stand for?


Answer: World War II

Question: During what war were the first digital computers invented?


Answer: integrated circuits

Context: Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space. Computers are small enough to fit into mobile devices, and mobile computers can be powered by small batteries. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are generally considered as "computers". However, the embedded computers found in many devices from MP3 players to fighter aircraft and from electronic toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

Question: Computers in today's age are based on what that make them much faster than earlier computers?


Answer: millions to billions of times

Question: How much more powerful are modern computers versus early computers?


Answer: 1613

Context: The first known use of the word "computer" was in 1613 in a book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by English writer Richard Braithwait: "I haue read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number." It referred to a person who carried out calculations, or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations.

Question: When was the first known use of the word "computer"?


Answer: The Yong Mans Gleanings

Question: In which book, was the term "computer" first used?


Answer: Richard Braithwait

Question: Who was the author of the book, The Yong Mans Gleanings?


Answer: 19th century

Question: From the end of what century, did the word "computer" take its well known meaning of today?


Answer: a form of tally stick

Context: Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was probably a form of tally stick. Later record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers. The use of counting rods is one example.

Question: The earliest device to help count was what?


Answer: (clay spheres, cones, etc.)

Question: Calculi during the Fertile Crescent refers to what?


Answer: arithmetic tasks

Context: The abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of money.

Question: What was the abacus first used for?


Answer: 2400 BC

Question: When was the Roman abacus first used?


Answer: Babylonia

Question: Where was the Roman abacus first used?


Answer: a checkered cloth

Question: In medieval Europe was was placed on a table to help count money?


Answer: sums of money

Question: A checkered cloth on a table was used in medieval Europe to help count what?


Answer: The Antikythera mechanism

Context: The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog "computer", according to Derek J. de Solla Price. It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to circa 100 BC. Devices of a level of complexity comparable to that of the Antikythera mechanism would not reappear until a thousand years later.

Question: What is thought to be the first mechanical analog computer?


Answer: 1901

Question: When was the Antikythera mechanism discovered?


Answer: Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera

Question: Where was the Antikythera mechanism found in 1901?


Answer: Kythera and Crete

Question: Where is the Greek Island of Antikythera located between?


Answer: Derek J. de Solla Price.

Question: The Antikythera mechanism was thought to be the first computer according to whom?


Answer: Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī

Context: Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th century. The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BC and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer and gear-wheels was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235. Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the first mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe, an early fixed-wired knowledge processing machine with a gear train and gear-wheels, circa 1000 AD.

Question: Who invented the planisphere?


Answer: Hipparchus

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


Answer: the planisphere and dioptra

Question: The astrolabe was a combination of what two devices in history?


Answer: 1235

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


Answer: Persia

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


Answer: 16th century

Context: The sector, a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry, multiplication and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots, was developed in the late 16th century and found application in gunnery, surveying and navigation.

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


Answer: 1620–1630

Context: The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630, shortly after the publication of the concept of the logarithm. It is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication and division. As slide rule development progressed, added scales provided reciprocals, squares and square roots, cubes and cube roots, as well as transcendental functions such as logarithms and exponentials, circular and hyperbolic trigonometry and other functions. Aviation is one of the few fields where slide rules are still in widespread use, particularly for solving time–distance problems in light aircraft. To save space and for ease of reading, these are typically circular devices rather than the classic linear slide rule shape. A popular example is the E6B.

Question: When was the slide rule first invented?


Answer: doing multiplication and division.

Question: What is the slide rule used for?


Answer: Aviation

Question: What industry are slide rules still used today?


Answer: a Swiss watchmaker

Context: In the 1770s Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker, built a mechanical doll (automata) that could write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters, and hence different messages, could be produced. In effect, it could be mechanically "programmed" to read instructions. Along with two other complex machines, the doll is at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and still operates.

Question: What was the profession of Pierre Jaquet-Droz?


Answer: In the 1770s

Question: When did Pierre Jaquet-Droz build a mechanical doll that could hold a pen?


Answer: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

Question: Where is the doll Pierre Jaquet-Droz built today?


Answer: Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Question: Where is the Musee d-Art et d'Histoire located?


Answer: 1872

Context: The tide-predicting machine invented by Sir William Thomson in 1872 was of great utility to navigation in shallow waters. It used a system of pulleys and wires to automatically calculate predicted tide levels for a set period at a particular location.

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


Answer: Sir William Thomson

Question: Who invented the first tide-predicting machine in 1872?


Answer: system of pulleys and wires

Question: What did Sir William Thomson's tide-predicting machine use to function?


Answer: wheel-and-disc

Context: The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration, used wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. In 1876 Lord Kelvin had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied by the limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators. In a differential analyzer, the output of one integrator drove the input of the next integrator, or a graphing output. The torque amplifier was the advance that allowed these machines to work. Starting in the 1920s, Vannevar Bush and others developed mechanical differential analyzers.

Question: What type of mechanisms did the differential analyzer use?


Answer: Lord Kelvin

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


Answer: 1920s

Question: During what decade were mechanical differential analyzers developed?


Answer: Vannevar Bush

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


Answer: Charles Babbage

Context: Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a programmable computer. Considered the "father of the computer", he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century. After working on his revolutionary difference engine, designed to aid in navigational calculations, in 1833 he realized that a much more general design, an Analytical Engine, was possible. The input of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms such as the Jacquard loom. For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell. The machine would also be able to punch numbers onto cards to be read in later. The Engine incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete.

Question: Who invented the concept of a programmable computer?


Answer: Charles Babbage

Question: Who is considered the "father of the computer"?


Answer: early 19th century

Question: During what century was the first mechanical computer invented by Charles Babbage?


Answer: 1833

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


Answer: Henry Babbage

Context: The machine was about a century ahead of its time. All the parts for his machine had to be made by hand — this was a major problem for a device with thousands of parts. Eventually, the project was dissolved with the decision of the British Government to cease funding. Babbage's failure to complete the analytical engine can be chiefly attributed to difficulties not only of politics and financing, but also to his desire to develop an increasingly sophisticated computer and to move ahead faster than anyone else could follow. Nevertheless, his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill) in 1888. He gave a successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906.

Question: Who was Charles Babbage's son?


Answer: Henry Babbage

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


Answer: 1888

Question: When was the mill created by Henry Babbage?


Answer: 1906

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


Answer: Sir William Thomson

Context: The first modern analog computer was a tide-predicting machine, invented by Sir William Thomson in 1872. The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration using wheel-and-disc mechanisms, was conceptualized in 1876 by James Thomson, the brother of the more famous Lord Kelvin.

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


Answer: 1872

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


Answer: James Thomson

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


Answer: Lord Kelvin

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


Answer: MIT

Context: The art of mechanical analog computing reached its zenith with the differential analyzer, built by H. L. Hazen and Vannevar Bush at MIT starting in 1927. This built on the mechanical integrators of James Thomson and the torque amplifiers invented by H. W. Nieman. A dozen of these devices were built before their obsolescence became obvious.

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


Answer: 1927

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


Answer: H. W. Nieman

Question: The torque amplifiers of the differential analyzer were created by whom?


Answer: 50s

Context: By the 1950s the success of digital electronic computers had spelled the end for most analog computing machines, but analog computers remain in use in some specialized applications such as education (control systems) and aircraft (slide rule).

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


Answer: education (control systems) and aircraft (slide rule).

Question: Analog computers remain in use in what industries?


Answer: Alan Turing

Context: The principle of the modern computer was first described by mathematician and pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing, who set out the idea in his seminal 1936 paper, On Computable Numbers. Turing reformulated Kurt Gödel's 1931 results on the limits of proof and computation, replacing Gödel's universal arithmetic-based formal language with the formal and simple hypothetical devices that became known as Turing machines. He proved that some such machine would be capable of performing any conceivable mathematical computation if it were representable as an algorithm. He went on to prove that there was no solution to the Entscheidungsproblem by first showing that the halting problem for Turing machines is undecidable: in general, it is not possible to decide algorithmically whether a given Turing machine will ever halt.

Question: Who wrote the paper "On Computable Numbers"?


Answer: 1936

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


Answer: Kurt Gödel

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


Answer: Universal Turing machine

Context: He also introduced the notion of a 'Universal Machine' (now known as a Universal Turing machine), with the idea that such a machine could perform the tasks of any other machine, or in other words, it is provably capable of computing anything that is computable by executing a program stored on tape, allowing the machine to be programmable. Von Neumann acknowledged that the central concept of the modern computer was due to this paper. Turing machines are to this day a central object of study in theory of computation. Except for the limitations imposed by their finite memory stores, modern computers are said to be Turing-complete, which is to say, they have algorithm execution capability equivalent to a universal Turing machine.

Question: A Universal Machine is known as what today?


Answer: the United States Navy

Context: By 1938 the United States Navy had developed an electromechanical analog computer small enough to use aboard a submarine. This was the Torpedo Data Computer, which used trigonometry to solve the problem of firing a torpedo at a moving target. During World War II similar devices were developed in other countries as well.

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


Answer: 1938

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


Answer: trigonometry

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


Answer: Konrad Zuse

Context: Early digital computers were electromechanical; electric switches drove mechanical relays to perform the calculation. These devices had a low operating speed and were eventually superseded by much faster all-electric computers, originally using vacuum tubes. The Z2, created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939, was one of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer.

Question: Who created the relay computer, the Z2?


Answer: 1939

Question: When did Konrad Zuse invent the Z2?


Answer: The Z2

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


Answer: German

Question: Konrad Zuse was an engineer with what nationality?


Answer: 1941

Context: In 1941, Zuse followed his earlier machine up with the Z3, the world's first working electromechanical programmable, fully automatic digital computer. The Z3 was built with 2000 relays, implementing a 22 bit word length that operated at a clock frequency of about 5–10 Hz. Program code was supplied on punched film while data could be stored in 64 words of memory or supplied from the keyboard. It was quite similar to modern machines in some respects, pioneering numerous advances such as floating point numbers. Replacement of the hard-to-implement decimal system (used in Charles Babbage's earlier design) by the simpler binary system meant that Zuse's machines were easier to build and potentially more reliable, given the technologies available at that time. The Z3 was Turing complete.

Question: When did Konrad Zuse create the Z3 computer?


Answer: the Z3

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


Answer: 2000

Question: How many relays did the Z3 contain?


Answer: about 5–10 Hz

Question: What did the Z3 operate for a clock frequency?


Answer: 64

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


Answer: Post Office Research Station

Context: Purely electronic circuit elements soon replaced their mechanical and electromechanical equivalents, at the same time that digital calculation replaced analog. The engineer Tommy Flowers, working at the Post Office Research Station in London in the 1930s, began to explore the possible use of electronics for the telephone exchange. Experimental equipment that he built in 1934 went into operation 5 years later, converting a portion of the telephone exchange network into an electronic data processing system, using thousands of vacuum tubes. In the US, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University developed and tested the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942, the first "automatic electronic digital computer". This design was also all-electronic and used about 300 vacuum tubes, with capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory.

Question: Where did the engineer Tommy Flowers work at during the 1930s?


Answer: London

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


Answer: 1942

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


Answer: about 300

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


Answer: Iowa State University

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


Answer: Flowers

Context: During World War II, the British at Bletchley Park achieved a number of successes at breaking encrypted German military communications. The German encryption machine, Enigma, was first attacked with the help of the electro-mechanical bombes. To crack the more sophisticated German Lorenz SZ 40/42 machine, used for high-level Army communications, Max Newman and his colleagues commissioned Flowers to build the Colossus. He spent eleven months from early February 1943 designing and building the first Colossus. After a functional test in December 1943, Colossus was shipped to Bletchley Park, where it was delivered on 18 January 1944 and attacked its first message on 5 February.

Question: Who built the first Colossus in 1943?


Answer: 18 January 1944

Question: When was the Colossus sent to Bletchley Park?


Answer: , the British

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


Answer: Bletchley Park

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


Answer: Colossus

Context: Colossus was the world's first electronic digital programmable computer. It used a large number of valves (vacuum tubes). It had paper-tape input and was capable of being configured to perform a variety of boolean logical operations on its data, but it was not Turing-complete. Nine Mk II Colossi were built (The Mk I was converted to a Mk II making ten machines in total). Colossus Mark I contained 1500 thermionic valves (tubes), but Mark II with 2400 valves, was both 5 times faster and simpler to operate than Mark 1, greatly speeding the decoding process.

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


Answer: 1500 thermionic valves (tubes)

Question: How many vacuum tubes did the Colossus Mark I contain?


Answer: 2400

Question: How many tubes did Colossus Mark II contain?


Answer: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)

Context: The US-built ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic programmable computer built in the US. Although the ENIAC was similar to the Colossus it was much faster and more flexible. It was unambiguously a Turing-complete device and could compute any problem that would fit into its memory. Like the Colossus, a "program" on the ENIAC was defined by the states of its patch cables and switches, a far cry from the stored program electronic machines that came later. Once a program was written, it had to be mechanically set into the machine with manual resetting of plugs and switches.

Question: The US-buils ENIAC stands for what?


Answer: ENIAC

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


Answer: 5000

Context: It combined the high speed of electronics with the ability to be programmed for many complex problems. It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. It also had modules to multiply, divide, and square root. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes). Built under the direction of John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to full operation at the end of 1945. The machine was huge, weighing 30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors.

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


Answer: ENIAC

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


Answer: John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert

Question: ENIAC was constructed by whom?


Answer: University of Pennsylvania

Question: Where did John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert build the ENIAC?


Answer: 1945

Question: When was ENIAC fully operational?


Answer: Alan Turing

Context: Early computing machines had fixed programs. Changing its function required the re-wiring and re-structuring of the machine. With the proposal of the stored-program computer this changed. A stored-program computer includes by design an instruction set and can store in memory a set of instructions (a program) that details the computation. The theoretical basis for the stored-program computer was laid by Alan Turing in his 1936 paper. In 1945 Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory and began work on developing an electronic stored-program digital computer. His 1945 report ‘Proposed Electronic Calculator’ was the first specification for such a device. John von Neumann at the University of Pennsylvania, also circulated his First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC in 1945.

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


Answer: 1936

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


Answer: 1945

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: University of Pennsylvania

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


Answer: Baby

Context: The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, nicknamed Baby, was the world's first stored-program computer. It was built at the Victoria University of Manchester by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program on 21 June 1948. It was designed as a testbed for the Williams tube the first random-access digital storage device. Although the computer was considered "small and primitive" by the standards of its time, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a modern electronic computer. As soon as the SSEM had demonstrated the feasibility of its design, a project was initiated at the university to develop it into a more usable computer, the Manchester Mark 1.

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


Answer: The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine

Question: What was the first stored-program computer in the world?


Answer: Victoria University of Manchester

Question: Where was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine built?


Answer: Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill

Question: Who built the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine?


Answer: 21 June 1948

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


Answer: The Mark 1

Context: The Mark 1 in turn quickly became the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer. Built by Ferranti, it was delivered to the University of Manchester in February 1951. At least seven of these later machines were delivered between 1953 and 1957, one of them to Shell labs in Amsterdam. In October 1947, the directors of British catering company J. Lyons & Company decided to take an active role in promoting the commercial development of computers. The LEO I computer became operational in April 1951 and ran the world's first regular routine office computer job.

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


Answer: Ferranti Mark 1

Question: What was the first available computer for the public?


Answer: 1951

Question: When was the Ferranti Mark 1 built?


Answer: University of Manchester

Question: Where was the Ferranti Mark 1 sent to after it was developed?


Answer: April 1951

Question: When was the LEO 1 computer first operational?


Answer: 1947.

Context: The bipolar transistor was invented in 1947. From 1955 onwards transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs, giving rise to the "second generation" of computers. Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors have many advantages: they are smaller, and require less power than vacuum tubes, so give off less heat. Silicon junction transistors were much more reliable than vacuum tubes and had longer, indefinite, service life. Transistorized computers could contain tens of thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact space.

Question: When was the bipolar transistor created?


Answer: 1955

Question: When did transistors start replacing vacuum tubes in computers?


Answer: Tom Kilburn

Context: At the University of Manchester, a team under the leadership of Tom Kilburn designed and built a machine using the newly developed transistors instead of valves. Their first transistorised computer and the first in the world, was operational by 1953, and a second version was completed there in April 1955. However, the machine did make use of valves to generate its 125 kHz clock waveforms and in the circuitry to read and write on its magnetic drum memory, so it was not the first completely transistorized computer. That distinction goes to the Harwell CADET of 1955, built by the electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell.

Question: At the University of Manchester, who oversaw the building of a computer using transistors instead of valves?


Answer: 1953

Question: The first transistorised computer was operational in what year?


Answer: valves

Question: What did the machine use to generate its clock waveforms?


Answer: electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell

Question: Who built the Harwell CADET?


Answer: 1955

Question: In what year was the Harwell CADET built?


Answer: Geoffrey W.A. Dummer

Context: The next great advance in computing power came with the advent of the integrated circuit. The idea of the integrated circuit was first conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the Ministry of Defence, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer. Dummer presented the first public description of an integrated circuit at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C. on 7 May 1952.

Question: The integrated circuit of a computer was the idea of whom?


Answer: Royal Radar Establishment of the Ministry of Defence

Question: Where did Geoffrey W.A. Dummer work at?


Answer: Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Context: The first practical ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated". Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby. His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium.

Question: Where created the first practical integrated circuits?


Answer: Texas Instruments

Question: Where did Jack Kilby work at when he created the first IC?


Answer: 12 September 1958.

Question: When was the first functional IC demonstrated?


Answer: germanium

Question: What was Kilby's IC made of?


Answer: silicon

Question: Noyce's IC was made up of what material?


Answer: Intel 4004

Context: This new development heralded an explosion in the commercial and personal use of computers and led to the invention of the microprocessor. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004, designed and realized by Ted Hoff, Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor at Intel.

Question: What was the name of the first single-chip microprocessor?


Answer: Ted Hoff, Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor

Question: Who created the Intel 4004 microprocessor?


Answer: Intel.

Question: Where did Ted Hoff, Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor work at?


Answer: smartphones

Context: With the continued miniaturization of computing resources, and advancements in portable battery life, portable computers grew in popularity in the 2000s. The same developments that spurred the growth of laptop computers and other portable computers allowed manufacturers to integrate computing resources into cellular phones. These so-called smartphones and tablets run on a variety of operating systems and have become the dominant computing device on the market, with manufacturers reporting having shipped an estimated 237 million devices in 2Q 2013.

Question: Computing resources that are created in cell phones are called what?


Answer: 237 million devices

Question: How many tablets were sold in 2Q 2013?


Answer: (gigaflops)

Context: In practical terms, a computer program may be just a few instructions or extend to many millions of instructions, as do the programs for word processors and web browsers for example. A typical modern computer can execute billions of instructions per second (gigaflops) and rarely makes a mistake over many years of operation. Large computer programs consisting of several million instructions may take teams of programmers years to write, and due to the complexity of the task almost certainly contain errors.

Question: Billions of instructions per second are called what in computer terms?


Answer: the flow of control

Context: Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and line in sequence, they may at times jump back to an earlier place in the text or skip sections that are not of interest. Similarly, a computer may sometimes go back and repeat the instructions in some section of the program over and over again until some internal condition is met. This is called the flow of control within the program and it is what allows the computer to perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention.

Question: When a computer goes back and repeats instructions of a program over until an internal condition is met is called what?


Answer: the flow of control

Question: What allows a computer to perform repetitive tasks without human intervening?


Answer: Harvard Mark I computer

Context: In most computers, individual instructions are stored as machine code with each instruction being given a unique number (its operation code or opcode for short). The command to add two numbers together would have one opcode; the command to multiply them would have a different opcode, and so on. The simplest computers are able to perform any of a handful of different instructions; the more complex computers have several hundred to choose from, each with a unique numerical code. Since the computer's memory is able to store numbers, it can also store the instruction codes. This leads to the important fact that entire programs (which are just lists of these instructions) can be represented as lists of numbers and can themselves be manipulated inside the computer in the same way as numeric data. The fundamental concept of storing programs in the computer's memory alongside the data they operate on is the crux of the von Neumann, or stored program[citation needed], architecture. In some cases, a computer might store some or all of its program in memory that is kept separate from the data it operates on. This is called the Harvard architecture after the Harvard Mark I computer. Modern von Neumann computers display some traits of the Harvard architecture in their designs, such as in CPU caches.

Question: Which computer is the Harvard architecture modeled after?


Answer: the Harvard architecture

Question: A computer that stores its program in memory and kept separate from the data is called what?


Answer: basic instruction can be given a short name that is indicative of its function

Context: While it is possible to write computer programs as long lists of numbers (machine language) and while this technique was used with many early computers, it is extremely tedious and potentially error-prone to do so in practice, especially for complicated programs. Instead, each basic instruction can be given a short name that is indicative of its function and easy to remember – a mnemonic such as ADD, SUB, MULT or JUMP. These mnemonics are collectively known as a computer's assembly language. Converting programs written in assembly language into something the computer can actually understand (machine language) is usually done by a computer program called an assembler.

Question: A computer's assembly language is known as what?


Answer: an assembler.

Question: Programs that convert assembly language into machine language are called what?


Answer: machine language

Question: Computer programs that are long lists of numbers are called what?


Answer: a compiler or an assembler

Context: Programming languages provide various ways of specifying programs for computers to run. Unlike natural languages, programming languages are designed to permit no ambiguity and to be concise. They are purely written languages and are often difficult to read aloud. They are generally either translated into machine code by a compiler or an assembler before being run, or translated directly at run time by an interpreter. Sometimes programs are executed by a hybrid method of the two techniques.

Question: Programming languages are translated into machine code by what?


Answer: an interpreter

Question: Programming languages are translated at run time by what?


Answer: a PDA or a hand-held videogame

Context: Machine languages and the assembly languages that represent them (collectively termed low-level programming languages) tend to be unique to a particular type of computer. For instance, an ARM architecture computer (such as may be found in a PDA or a hand-held videogame) cannot understand the machine language of an Intel Pentium or the AMD Athlon 64 computer that might be in a PC.

Question: An ARM architecture computer can be found in what?