The World's Largest Computer in 1951

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose electronic computer, which stood 10 feet tall, occupied 1,000 square feet, and weighed approximately 30 tons. It utilized over 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 18,000 vacuum tubes, consuming 150 kilowatts of power. Additionally, the conversation shifts to the Russian Ekranoplan, a Ground Effect Vehicle developed by Rostislav Alekseev, which could travel over 400 km/h and weighed 540 tons fully loaded. The Ekranoplan was designed for military transport and could carry over 100 tonnes of cargo.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of electronic components such as resistors and capacitors
  • Familiarity with the concept of Ground Effect Vehicles
  • Knowledge of military transport technologies
  • Basic historical context of computing technology development
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the technical specifications and historical significance of the ENIAC
  • Explore the design and operational principles of Ground Effect Vehicles
  • Investigate the military applications of the Ekranoplan
  • Learn about the evolution of computing technology post-ENIAC
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for historians, technology enthusiasts, and engineers interested in the evolution of computing and transport technologies, particularly those focused on military applications and early electronic devices.

  • #361
Ok, Its Huckleberry's turn. I like this thread. :biggrin:
 
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  • #362
Who was the first person in history to have written evidence of an accurate solution for Olbers' Paradox?

I hope I got this right, but there it is. We'll know soon enough.
 
  • #363
Einstein?...
 
  • #364
Kepler was so disturbed by this paradox that he simply postulated thta the universe was finite, enclosed within a shell, and hence only a finite amount of starlight could reach our eyes.

Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers in 1823 wrote that the starlight is absorbed by dust clouds. "How forunate that the Earth does not receive starlight from every point of the celestial vault! Yet, with such unimaginablee brightness and heat, amounting to 90,000 times more than what we now experience, the Almighty could easily have deisnged organsims capable of adapting to such extreme conditions." Olbers suggested the dust clouds must absorb the intense heat to make life on Earth possible.
 
  • #365
Nope.
How should I know when to give a clue?
 
  • #366
No! I got the answer.
 
  • #367
Huckleberry said:
Nope.
How should I know when to give a clue?
Just listen to your sadistic streak. :biggrin:
 
  • #368
Mk said:
No! I got the answer.
what year was Kepler's discovery?
 
  • #369
In 1848, the first person in history to solve the mystery was Edger Allen Poe, who had a long-term interest in astronomy. Just before he died he published the answer in a philosphical poem entitled Eureka: A Prose Poem.

Were the succession of stars endless, then the background of the sky would present us an uniform luminosity, like that displayed by the Galaxy - sice there could be absolutely no point, in all that backgroud, at which would not aexist a star. The only mode, therefore, in which, under such a state of affairs, we could comprehend the voids whihc our telescopes find in innumerable directions, would be by supposing that the distance of the invisible background [is] so imense that no ray from it has yet to be able to reach us at all. [This] idea is by far too beautiful not to possesses Truth as its essentiality.
 
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  • #370
Oh, and Lord Kelvin also discovered it in 1901.
 
  • #371
MK has the right answer. Or at least the answer that I was looking for.

Just like Lord Kelvin, to come up with an answer before the question is asked. Poe was the name I had in mind.
 
  • #372
I am an autistic savant and child prodigy that was born around 1850, in America. Mark Twain regularly attended my concerts before I started my world tour. Give two of my names. :smile:
 
  • #373
Mk said:
I am an autistic savant and child prodigy that was born around 1850, in America. Mark Twain regularly attended my concerts before I started my world tour. Give two of my names. :smile:
Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins
 
  • #374
Correctamundo!
 
  • #375
She drew a blank, intentionally, with this invention in 1951.
 
  • #376
zoobyshoe said:
She drew a blank, intentionally, with this invention in 1951.
Etch-a-Sketch?
 
  • #377
Liquid Paper was invented by Bette Nesmith in 1951.
 
  • #378
Mk said:
Liquid Paper was invented by Bette Nesmith in 1951.
That's it!
 
  • #379
This group of people in the 1500s did not eat worms.
 
  • #380
That would be referring to The Diet of Worms, being a meeting of the estates of the holy roman empire in Worms, Germany, to address Luther's theses criticising the catholic church. It was held by holy roman emperor Charles V
 
  • #381
Yes. Your turn to formulate a question!
 
  • #382
The centre of the Earth prooved too far, despite their very expensive efforts.
 
  • #383
What country? This could be a lot of groups.
 
  • #384
Vert true Mk, Very True.
 
  • #385
It was America.
 
  • #386
The deepest research borehole ever drilled was in Russia, on the Kola peninsula. Over a period of more than a decade a huge purpose-built rig drilled to over 12 kilometers to investigate the structure of the Continental Crust. Its about 12,226 meters deep.
 
  • #387
*doubletakes* America? Is my world's deepest hole going the right direction?
 
  • #388
You're on the right track. This was undertaken by The American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC), and wasn't in Russia.
 
  • #389
Oh, well now you told us the answer.

What do the rules say now?
 
  • #390
How about just Zygotic Embryo posts a question.
 

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