Of all the inventions of the last century, none has changed our lives more than the computer.
A German named Konrad Zuse is considered to be the inventor of the computer. In 1941, he built the world's first computer that was controlled by programs. It was used to do difficult math problems.
From 1937 to 1942, a teacher and a student from Iowa State University in the United States worked on a new computer. It was the world's first electronic digital computer (电子数字计算机). It was the size of a desk and weighed over 700 pounds. That is the weight of a strong bear!
In 1946, two inventors worked together and built an even bigger and better computer. They called it ENIAC. It filled a huge room and weighed 30 tons, or about as heavy as 5 elephants. It used lots of electricity and needed a way to help keep it cool.
In 1947, the transistor (晶体管) was invented. This made it possible to build a smaller computer. The invention of integrated circuits (集成电路) then took the jobs of many electronic parts and put them into one part.
Then microprocessors (微处理器) were invented, which took lots and lots of integrated circuits and put them into one microchip (微芯片). These improvements led to the computers we use today. But scientists still developed other inventions to make the computer do different things and easier to use.
Computers paved the way for the Internet, a whole new way of communicating. Webpages, e-mails, and high-speed Internet connections soon followed. These things made communicating with people all over the world easy. What might computers do in the future? What will be invented then?
