The World's Largest Computer in 1951

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The discussion centers around two significant machines: the ENIAC, an early computer that was 10 feet tall, weighed 30 tons, and required 150 kilowatts of power, and the Russian Ekranoplan, a ground effect vehicle that could travel over 400 km/h and weighed 540 tons. The ENIAC utilized a vast number of electronic components but had less processing power than a modern pocket calculator. The Ekranoplan, developed by the Soviet Union, operates just above water using a shock wave principle, allowing it to travel over various terrains. The conversation also touches on trivia and historical facts about these machines, highlighting their unique engineering and capabilities. Overall, the thread showcases a blend of technical details and engaging quiz-like interactions.
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It was 10 feet tall, occupied 1,000 square feet of floor- space, weighed in at approximately 30 tons, and used more than 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 18,000 vacuum tubes. The final machine required 150 kilowatts of power, which was enough to light a small town.
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what was it?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The ENIAC.
 
that was quick :smile:
 
Any more quiz questions? :biggrin:
 
A single link from one of its eight crawler tracks weighs three and a half tons. It stands 21 stories high and its ------ can lift 270 tons of dirt -- twice the weight of a blue whale. Four of these rigs would outweigh the Titanic
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what is it?
 
"its bucket"...
 
and what is the machine called?
 
Shouldn't I let others have a go? :wink:

M__i__    6__0
 
Shouldn't I let others have a go?
yes.
i will try to find something more difficult. :smile:
 
  • #10
its over 100 meters long
could travel over 400 km/hr
weighed 540 tons fully loaded
had 10 engines
could travel over land, water, snow, ice.
 
  • #11
wolram said:
its over 100 meters long
could travel over 400 km/hr
weighed 540 tons fully loaded
had 10 engines
could travel over land, water, snow, ice.

Mag-lev train? Don't know if it qualifies for the last criteria but I suppose that theoretically it could... might be difficult in practice though.
 
  • #12
sorry pergatory good guess.
Mag-lev train? Don't know if it qualifies for the last criteria but I suppose that theoretically it could... might be difficult in practice though.
hint... it was built in Russia and was tested on caspian sea.
 
  • #13
If it weren't for the 400 km/h I would say it was one of those big hovercraft like the one that crosses the channel from France to England.
 
  • #14
zoobyshoe said:
If it weren't for the 400 km/h I would say it was one of those big hovercraft like the one that crosses the channel from France to England.[/QUOTE
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close ZOOBY, but it doesn't hover it uses "ground effect",
 
  • #15
I don't know the name but I have seen the flight test. This craft uses a shock wave in much the same way that a hovercraft uses a cushion of air.

Very cool.

What is a molad.
 
  • #16
wolram said:
It was 10 feet tall, occupied 1,000 square feet of floor- space, weighed in at approximately 30 tons, and used more than 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 18,000 vacuum tubes. The final machine required 150 kilowatts of power, which was enough to light a small town.

It had less processing power than a $5 pocket calculator.
 
  • #17
wolram said:
its over 100 meters long
could travel over 400 km/hr
weighed 540 tons fully loaded
had 10 engines
could travel over land, water, snow, ice.

The Russian Ekranoplan
The Russian Ekranoplan looks like an aircraft but it only flies a few metres above water. Translated the Russian name Ekranoplan means sea skimmer and this is exactly what the Ekranoplan does. The Ekranoplan is what is known as a Ground Effect Vehicle, it operates on the principle of wing in ground effect, where the air gap between a wing and the ground is small enough for the air to be compressed.

Born out of the Soviet Unions Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau it was developed by their chief designer Rostislav Alekseev. Several different Ekranoplan's were developed from 1961 to 1990. Since the fall of the Soviet Union many of the design team from the CHDB have formed a new company with plans to develop new craft for passenger and cargo usage. Also 11 small 5 passenger craft were constructed between 1995 and 1997, they were used in trial commercial operation in USA and the Bahamas...

...The largest Ekranoplan called the KM was built in 1967, it was dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster after the sea it was on when first seen by the west. It was almost twice the length of a Boeing 777-200 but as with all Ground Effect Craft it need only half the wingspan. At over 100 m long, weighing 540 tons fully loaded, the KM could travel over 400 km/h mere meters above the surface of the water. Once moving at speed, the Ekranoplan was no longer in contact with the water, and could move over ice, snow, or level land with equal ease.

The important design principle is that the wing lift reduces the further above the surface of land or sea that the ekranoplan "flies". Thus its dynamically stable in the vertical dimension.

These craft were originally developed by the Soviet Union as very high-speed (several hundred km/hour) military transports, and were mostly based on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The largest
could transport over 100 tonnes of cargo. [continued]

http://www.gizmohighway.com/transport/ekranoplan.htm
 
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  • #18
So I'm not sure if I'm allowed a question but here is one that I think Wolram will like.

It was the first vehicle proven to get more than 188 miles per gallon.
 
  • #19
Ivan Seeking said:
So I'm not sure if I'm allowed a question but here is one that I think Wolram will like.

It was the first vehicle proven to get more than 188 miles per gallon.

_________________________________________________________________

What is a hotair balloon?
 
  • #20
  • #21
sorry i missed last few posts, 188mpg, this must be one of
these super light contraptions purpose built.
 
  • #22
no can't be some of those guys are getting over 400MPG, so a road
vehicle.
 
  • #23
this is a stinker, the best hybrids only achieve 70 ish MPG.
IVAN was this a "special" ?
 
  • #24
I'm not sure if I know what you mean by a special. Do you mean is this a special one-off of some sort? If so, no.

It is one of the following: car, truck, motorcycle, plane, train, or a boat.
"It should be specified according to the vehicle type [above] with the year of the test, and the manufacturer.

Hint: the actual number given is 188.234 mpg, but I would think that this must use too many significant digits.

Let me know if I should tell and pass.
 
  • #25
Also, I wasn't considering a hot air balloon as a vehicle so if I misstated the case, sorry about that. Maybe I should have said 188 powered mpg.. You can probably coast 200 miles downhill somewhere in the world so this wouldn't count.
 
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  • #26
Motorcycle, Harley Davidson, 1908
 
  • #27
a crude thing made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and some copper wire - what was it?
 
  • #28
Evo said:
Motorcycle, Harley Davidson, 1908

Yay!

1908 Walter Davidson scores a perfect 1,000 points at the 7th Annual Federation of American Motorcyclists Endurance and Reliability Contest. Three days after the contest, Walter sets the FAM economy record at 188.234 miles per gallon. Word of Harley-Davidson's extremely tough motorcycle spreads rapidly.

http://www.harley-davidson.com/CO/HIS/en/history1900.asp?locale=en_US&bmLocale=en_US

surprising isn't it?
 
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  • #29
Evo said:
a crude thing made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and some copper wire - what was it?

a party: year 1969?
 
  • #30
Originally Posted by Evo
a crude thing made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and some copper wire - what was it?

not a battery,not electro plating, something to catch the resulting
element from the reaction of acid and copper?
 
  • #31
Ivan Seeking said:
a party: year 1969?
:biggrin: Good answer! and possibly correct, but not what I had in mind. :wink:
 
  • #32
field programmable gates arrays.
invented by G BELL, to turn sound waves into a varying current.
 
  • #33
wolram said:
Originally Posted by Evo
a crude thing made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and some copper wire - what was it?

not a battery,not electro plating, something to catch the resulting
element from the reaction of acid and copper?
It is currently in use today, I am attaching a picture of the original.

http://imageuploader.milbrathnet.net/uploads/bg.jpg
 
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  • #34
nice one EVO.
anyone have a what, is ,was it?
 
  • #35
enigma said:
It had less processing power than a $5 pocket calculator.

But it had certainly more ROCK'N'ROLLLL! :biggrin:
 
  • #36
1.4 meters in diameter, 2.5 tones. In 1930 it set records 9 miles from Nonesuch.

Njorl
 
  • #37
a diving bell?
 
  • #38
more than a half mile below the ocean's surface at Nonesuch Island near ... Barton and
Beebe, in their diving bell, reached a depth of 3,028 feet yesterday, August ...
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my best guess.
 
  • #39
Evo said:
It is currently in use today, I am attaching a picture of the original.

Like Herman used to say, "darn darn darn darn darn darn darn!"

I knew that! I forgot about the acid.
 
  • #40
wolram said:
more than a half mile below the ocean's surface at Nonesuch Island near ... Barton and
Beebe, in their diving bell, reached a depth of 3,028 feet yesterday, August ...
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my best guess.


Yup. The Bathysphere to be precise. It is one of my favorite words to say.
 
  • #41
wolram said:
field programmable gates arrays.
invented by G BELL, to turn sound waves into a varying current.
ooh, almost, not a FGPA though. You probably have at least one of these in your house.
 
  • #42
I thought this was answered. It's a telephone.
 
  • #43
Ivan Seeking said:
I thought this was answered. It's a telephone.
Yes, I was looking for telephone specifically. You and Wolram can share the honor.
 
  • #44
who's next, if you find this stimulating, give me a what was, is ,it.
 
  • #45
I love this stuff. When Tsu and I first played trivial pursuit we were both completely addicted until we had finally memorized about half of the cards.

The parts list includes a transmitter and receiver, a stylus for each, and two large pendulums.
 
  • #46
Njorl said:
...Bathysphere... It is one of my favorite words to say.

Do you say this alot...while alone...in the dark?
 
  • #47
Ivan Seeking said:
The parts list includes a transmitter and receiver, a stylus for each, and two large pendulums.
Alxander Bain's proto "fax" machine?
 
  • #48
Not quite what I had chosen but definitely close enough. I assume they were basically the same. Instead I chose the 1860 model of Giovanni Caselli's Pantelegraph - which sent the first facsimile between Paris and Lyon.

http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/FAX_HIST.html

according to this, Bain's actually made a telegraph, not a fax machine, but I really know nothing about it. Maybe you or someone else can clear this up...I must get back to work. :frown:



A fax machine from the year 1865

The idea of putting the achievements of telegraphy to good use in order to transmit photographs as well as printed texts and drawings dates back to the 1850's. The Pantelegraph conceived by the abbot, Giovanni Caselli, was a system of sending and receiving images over long distances by means of electrochemistry.

The stylus of the transmitter scanning an original document by moving across its parallel lines sent messages by telegraph to a receiver. The stylus of the receiver moving across a chemically-treated sheet of paper reproduced the document according to the signals received. Transmitter and receiver were syncronized by two large pendulums swinging in sync with each other. On 16th February, 1865 the Pantelegraph was introduced into service for the Paris and Lyons and the Paris and Le Havre on to the Marseille Railways. It was phased out in 1870. The machine on display in the Museum is a working model that was built for the 1932 Chicago Exhibition.

http://www.museoscienza.org/english/radio/telefax.html
 
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  • #49
wolram said:
who's next, if you find this stimulating, give me a what was, is ,it.
Wolram, this is a great thread. I love learning stuff this way. :smile:
 
  • #50
Introduced in 1954. It measures 5 x 3 x 1 1/4 inches, weighs 12 ounces, and contains four germanium transistors.
 

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