Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term - Senior Secondary 1

Term: 1^st Term

Week: 5

Class: Senior Secondary School 1

Age: 15 years

Duration: 40 minutes of 2 periods each

Date:       

Subject:      Computer Studies and ICT

Topic:-       Computing devices (Pre-computer age- 19^th century)

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to

1. Explains the features, components and use of the computing devices in from the Pre-computer age to the 19^th century

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES: Identification, explanation, questions and answers, demonstration, videos from source

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS: Videos, loud speaker, pictures, Data Processing for senior Secondary Education by Hiit Plc, WAPB Computer Studies for Senior Secondary I by Adekunle et al, On-line Materials.

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES

PERIOD 1-2

NOTE

COMPUTING DEVICES (Pre-computer age-19^th century)

Here is a breakdown of how many has progressed in his quest to invent tools and machines that helps him to carry out calculations quicker and faster.

Manual Devices or Mechanical Calculating Tools

1. ABACUS

The first calculating device was probably Abacus.  The Babylonians invented it.  It is still being used in some countries because of its simple operation.  It is made up of a frame divided into two parts by a horizontal bar and vertical threads.  Each thread contains some beads.  To do simple addition and subtraction you shift the beads from one portion to another.

2. SLIDE RULE

The slide rule is a calculating device that was based on the principles of logarithms. It was first built in England in 1632 and is still in use in the 1960’s by the NASA engineers of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs which led men on the moon.

Mechanical Counting Machines

3. NAPIER’S BONE

The need for a better calculating device was felt as time passed.  John Napier, a Scottish mathematician in 1617, invented a set of eleven rods, with four sides each which was used as a multiplication tool.  These rods were made from bones and this was the reason why they were called Napier Bones.  The rods had numbers marked in such a way that, by placing them side by side, products and quotients of large numbers can be obtained.

4. PASCALINE

The first mechanical calculating machine was invented in 1642, by Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician.  Numbers were entered by dialing a series of numbered wheels in this machine.  A sequence of wheels transferred the movements to a dial, which showed the result.  Though addition and subtraction were performed the normal way, the device could perform division by repeated subtraction and multiplication by repeated addition.

5. LEIBNITZ CALCULATING MACHINE

Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibnitz invented a machine that could add, subtract, multiply and divide and called it Stepped Reckoner.  Leibnitz was the first to advocate use of binary number system.

6. JACQUARD’S LOOM

Jacquard’s loom was one of the first machines that was run by a program.  Joseph Jacquard changed the weaving industry by creating a loom that controlled the raising of the threads through punched cards.  Jacquard’s loom used lines of holes on a card to represent the weaving pattern.

7. CHARLES BABBAGE’S DIFFERENCE ENGINE

In 1822 Charles Babbage proposed a calculating machine known as Difference Engine. It would be able to compute tables of numbers such as logarithm tables but was not finished.

8. CHARLES BABBAGE’S ANALYTICAL ENGINE

In 1833, Babbage designed another machine called Analytical Engine.       The machine is as large as a house powered by six steam engines more general purpose in nature and programmable due to the punched card technology of Jacquard.

9. MARK I.

Mark I. invented the world first electro- mechanical computer and was used during World War II by the U.S Navy.

Automatic Devices or Electronic Counting Machines.

1. HERMAN HOLLERITH’S MACHINE

Herman Hollerith invented a machine which worked on electricity for the first time in 1889. One machine was used for recording data and the other one was used for doing calculations of the recording of the recorded data. His machine was capable of reading both numbers and letters.

Hollerith invented the tabulation machine that could read information from punched cards. His machine was used to collate the census data for the United States of America in 1890.

2. BURROUGH’S MACHINE

In 1885, William Seward Burroughs invented this mechanical adding machine. The early Burroughs modes were large machines characterized by having glass panels in the sides, so the mechanism could be seen. Common components of the Burroughs machines are: keypads, lever, registers and printer. 

3. JOHN VON NEUMANN’S MACHINE:

John Von Neumann was a Hungarian-born American mathematician developed MINIAC (Mathematics Analyzer, Numerical Integrator and  Computer), which at the time was the fastest computer of its kind. The first machine built using Von Neumann’s architecture was the EDVAC.

4. PHILIP EMEAGWALI’S COMPUTER:

Nigerian born Dr. Philip Emeagwali first entered limelight in 1989 when he won the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for inventing a very fast computer. He programmed a computer that could compute a world record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,535 processors to simulate oil reservoirs.

EVALUATION:    1. State the two early manual devices, their features and                               their uses

2. Mention three early mechanical devices, their features                    and their uses
3. Mention two early electronic devices, their features and                                       their uses 

CLASSWORK: As in evaluation

CONCLUSION: The teacher commends the students positively