This child is using a science program on her home computer to study
fish. She can use many other programs to study different subjects.
A machine that helps you think
If you’re an astronaut in a speeding spaceship, you have a problem. The
ship is rocketing through space at tremendous speed—thousands of miles
an hour. To change direction, you have to figure out where the ship is
and how fast it’s traveling—and you have only seconds to do it!
You can’t think that fast. But a computer can. A computer is a
high-speed thinking machine. It can do the figuring for you and tell you
where the ship is—every second.
Is the computer smarter than you are? Not really. It doesn’t \”think”
the same way you do. A computer has to be told exactly how to think and
what to think about. It can’t help you fly a spaceship, run a bank, or
find a library book unless someone gives it the right information.
People who work with computers write programs for them. They figure
out exactly what problems a computer needs to solve. Then they give
step-by-step instructions for solving the problems. The computer stores
the instructions in its memory.
People also figure out exactly what facts the computer needs to know to
solve problems. Millions of these facts are also stored in the
computer’s memory.
When someone gives the computer a problem to solve, it searches its
memory for the facts it needs. Then it follows its program and solves
the problem step by step. It may go through hundreds of steps to solve a
single problem—but it whizzes through those steps in just a few
seconds. It saves work— and it saves time, too.
