1. What was the main reason that the Difference Engine was never completed?

a. Babbage was difficult to work with, and all of his hired help eventually quit.
b. The British Government, Babbage's main funding source, lost interest in the project.
c. The technology available at this time did not adequately support the design of the machine.
d. Babbage lost interest in the project, and decided to concentrate on building an Analytical Engine.




















2. Why do we call the Analytical Engine the first true computer?

a. It used punched cards for its input.
b. It was to be composed of several separate devices, each with a prescribed function.
c. It was designed to do non-arithmetic processing as well as arithmetic processing.
d. Its organization outlines almost identically that of modern computers.




















3. What did the Hollerith tabulating machine and the Jacquard loom have in common?

a. Both were designed to displace human workers.
b. Both relied on punched cards.
c. Both were incorporated into Babbage's design of the Analytical Engine.
d. Both were developed in response to needs for processing increasingly large quantities of data.




















4. In terms of building computers, which of the following is NOT an advantage of electrical technology over mechanical?

a. Electrical devices operate faster than do comparable mechanical ones.
b. Electrical devices are cheaper to build than are comparable mechanical ones.
c. Electrical devices are cheaper to operate than are comparable mechanical ones.
d. Electrical devices are more reliable than are comparable mechanical ones.




















5. The first machine to realize the intended functionality of the Analytical Engine was

a. the ABC Computer
b. Zuse's Z1 computer
c. the Harvard Mark I
d. the ENIAC




















6. John Von Neumann's seminal contribution to the development of the modern computer was that

a. he realized computers could be applied to non-numeric tasks.
b. he was the first person to develop the idea of a "program" for instructing the computer.
c. he developed the idea of a "stored program" computer.
d. he invented the transistor.




















7. Which is NOT an advantage of transistors over vacuum tubes for building computers?

a. Transistors provide faster switching than do vacuum tubes.
b. Transistors are programmable, whereas vacuum tubes are not.
c. Transistors are smaller than vacuum tubes.
d. Transistors produce less heat than do vacuum tubes.




















8. Integrated circuits were first introduced in which computer "generation"?

a. First
b. Second
c. Third
d. Fourth




















9. Among the first computer companies to recognize the potential of the microcomputer was

a. IBM
b. Apple
c. Digital Equipment
d. Hewlett-Packard




















10. Science fiction literature of the 1940's and 1950's correctly predicted the current state and ubiquity of computer technology.

a. True
b. False
c. In some cases.
d. 1940's literature did not, but 1950's literature did.




















 
Congratulations: you've reached the end of the quiz. Return to the list of quizzes to take another chapter quiz, or to reset your score and start over.

If you'd like more information on the History of Computation and Computers, see the Resources for this Module.