Storiascopio · Era 11 of 12 · lower secondary year 3
The first general-purpose electronic computer
1946 · University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
In short
ENIAC was shown to the public in February 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. It filled a whole room, weighed about 30 tonnes and ran on almost 18,000 electronic valves. It could do thousands of calculations a second and, by changing its connections, solve different problems. It was programmed by six young women mathematicians, whose names stayed almost unknown for decades.
Why it matters It is the ancestor of the computers, tablets and smartphones that today fit in one hand.
Source: University of Pennsylvania, Penn Today, “The world's first general purpose computer turns 75”
Where we are in the era “Early 20th century”
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1903Event 22 of 25about 1950
Your turn
Name ______________________ Class ______ Date __________
When did it happen? Find the date at the top and write it here:
Tell it in your own words: what happened?
Draw the scene below.
storiascopio.com/en/event/the-first-general-purpose-electronic-computer/ · free worksheet, you may photocopy it for your class