What Are Computers?

What Are Computers? — page 1 — WHAT IS A COMPUTER Playing a game online Watching a movie on a tablet Finding a book at the library On a daily basis you probably use computers more often than you think Computers are everywhere and they’re a major part of our lives Computers are in our homes in our classrooms and in almost any store you can think of If you have a smartphone you can even say you have a computer in your pocket It is hard to imagine a world without computers But no 4 All of the devices pictured here are kinds of computers Some are more mobile than others

What Are Computers? — page 2 — A college math teacher performs a computation on the chalkboard one really used what we think of as computers until about 60 years ago Before that computers were people who made computations by hand Today computers do a lot of tasks including calculations for us Let’s find out more about computers Think About It What are some examples of tasks that computers do for us now that we used to do manually 5

What Are Computers? — page 3 — A computer is a device for working with information The information can be numbers words pictures movies or sounds Computer information is called data Computers can read huge amounts of data very quickly They can also store data in files Computer technology has been improved to do tasks we want them to perform For example early computers could not play videos Today the technology that makes that possible is built into all personal computers People use computers for fun but also for work Factory workers use computers to control how things are made In offices workers use computers to keep records and to write reports Computers Phones can do many things that laptops and desktops can do So can tablets 6

What Are Computers? — page 4 — People access websites using the internet They can learn shop and be entertained can also help people perform everyday tasks People use computers for sending email shopping and banking Many people use computers to access the internet which provides information from all over the world Vocabulary The internet is a communications system that connects computers and computer networks all over the world 7

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