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.
  • #651
lol I went out and people turned vicious!

A company started in Daegu, Korea. They are now mainly an electronics company, after sugar production failed. They got permission to build half of what huge structure in the southern hemisphere?
 
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  • #652
I noticed Moonbear's question. Hmm, it looks difficult.
 
  • #653
Mk said:
lol I went out and people turned vicious!

A company started in Daegu, Korea. They are now mainly an electronics company, after sugar production failed. They got permission to build half of what huge structure in the southern hemisphere?
Hey! I already have a question on the table here. :-p
 
  • #654
Come see moonbear and Mk take it out on each other. Bets are no less that $25!
 
  • #655
Mk said:
I noticed Moonbear's question. Hmm, it looks difficult.
I hope so...I need some time to breathe and respond to other threads while you're figuring it out. :biggrin:
 
  • #656
:zzz: goodnight, I'm going to sleep. and by going to sleep, I mean staying up until 2:00 AM watching tv
 
  • #657
Moonbear said:
Okay, in the spirit of a somewhat google proof clue, a Highlander might store this in a flask of the same name. Two-part answer required: 1) What is the item being stored? 2) By what name is the flask more commonly known?
1) Curses
2) Pandora's Box

:frown: Maybe.
 
  • #658
Is it the highlander's touch that contains the elixer of life?
 
  • #659
1) Some sort of alcholic drink?

1) Poison?
 
  • #660
Huckleberry wins?
 
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  • #661
Huckleberry said:
Is it the highlander's touch that contains the elixer of life?
Nope.

MK said:
1) Some sort of alcholic drink?

1) Poison?
LOL! Yeah, I guess some people would say pick your poison. An alcoholic drink would be on the right path.
 
  • #662
A tifflask of brandy?
 
  • #663
Huckleberry said:
A tifflask of brandy?
Nope, remember, the flask and beverage must share a common name.
 
  • #664
Evo said:
You're a good person danger. :approve:
Thanks, sweetie. Really, I'm a jerk, but I try to hide it when I'm around people I like.

zoobyshoe said:
Besides, Evo, how could anyone ever get a single one of the technical things Ivan posts without googling?
What world do you live in? Do you seriously think that I either 'Googled' or looked up in a book the radio telescope or photocell answers? That's cheating as far as I'm concerned. I was really enjoying this thread until I found out what people were doing; now I'll just read it once in a while. I didn't even know what a 'Google' was until a couple of weeks after I came to PF (early March), and I still sure as hell don't know enough about it to look up a clue or 'Google-proof' one of my own. The problem is, even if the rules say 'no Googling' they're still going to do it.
 
  • #665
*huck raises his hand and bows his head*

Hi, my name is Huckleberry and I am a google addict.

Moonbear's question appears to be googleproof though
 
  • #666
Moonbear said:
Nope, remember, the flask and beverage must share a common name.
Not participating any more, but this is one that aggravates me. I'm 25% Highland, 25% Lowland, and 100% alcoholic, and I can't think of the answer. I'll keep trying to, though.
 
  • #667
Coffee cup?

Coffee is what's inside, and the flask is called a coffee cup!
 
  • #668
Mk said:
Coffee cup?

Coffee is what's inside, and the flask is called a coffee cup!
We've established the contents are alcoholic ("spirit" and "proof" were supposed to hint at that.)
 
  • #669
Huckleberry said:
Moonbear's question appears to be googleproof though
That was my plan. You have to figure out at least part of it before you can google anything. :devil:

Edit: sorry folks, it's past my bedtime. I'll return tomorrow to see if there's any new progress on this one and to consider some additional clues if you're still stuck.
 
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  • #670
Sour fruit in a sour fruit flask?
 
  • #671
Wine cooler!
Its a drink and a cooler for wine!

Waha! Got it!
 
  • #672
Dewars?...
 
  • #673
:zzz: I'm back, couldn't resist.
 
  • #674
lol, when its my turn I'll let you give a question, if you want. Have you given one?

Moonbear, this is a fair one right? You don't have to live under giant artichoke or pig to get it right?
 
  • #675
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
what was it?
Here's post #1. Where does it say "No Googling"? The no googling rule was something that some people decided to impose on themselves with no outside instruction to do so.
 
  • #676
Tru dat! I'm for googling. Everyone in the thread should. Besides, some of these are quite diffucult with googling.
 
  • #677
zoobyshoe said:
Here's post #1. Where does it say "No Googling"? The no googling rule was something that some people decided to impose on themselves with no outside instruction to do so.
I took it to be a test of both knowledge and reasoning. Both of those are out the window as soon as you start looking things up. I mean, really, the ENIAC question was so obvious that there should have been no reason for anyone to look anything up. (Well, kids maybe. ENIAC and MultiVac were the first 2 things that I had to study for Data Processing class in grade 10.)
 
  • #678
I always use knowlege, reasoning, literture in my home, and the internet for the questions. But yeah, ENIAC was really easy, it only required the first two.
 
  • #679
I guess If we won't receive confirmation from Moonbear for a while, we could try a crack at mine?

Mk said:
A company started in Daegu, Korea. They are now mainly an electronics company, after sugar production failed. They got permission to build half of what huge structure in the southern hemisphere?

I suggest using the four resources.
 
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  • #680
Danger said:
I took it to be a test of both knowledge and reasoning. Both of those are out the window as soon as you start looking things up.
I took it to be a fun thread to pass the time. No one's being graded. Anyone who knows the answer off the top of their head can automatically get it into the thread before anyone could possibly google it, so the well read people with good memories win the round anyway.
 
  • #681
Except of course some of the questions, like Ivan's, or some of mine, would be impossible to know off the top of your head.
 
  • #682
Moonbear said:
Okay, in the spirit of a somewhat google proof clue, a Highlander might store this in a flask of the same name. Two-part answer required: 1) What is the item being stored? 2) By what name is the flask more commonly known?

Whisky (a good single malt, prefereably :biggrin:) in a hip flask I'd assume.
 
  • #683
matthyaouw said:
Invented in the 1930s this was a new variation on something well known previously. Its new twist allowed it to be a lot louder than its predecessors. It is still commonly used today.

No one guessed this one. It was the electric guitar.
 
  • #684
In 1846, Dewar's first master blender employed a method of handcrafting whisky, creating John Dewar and Sons' most treasured blend. After carefully blending selected quality malt and grain whiskies (each of which was at least 12 years old), the master blender - When satisfied with his creation-would "marry" the resulting blend. That kind of skill and knowledge has been passed down only from master blender to master blender over successive generations.
1) Scotch
2) A dewar
 
  • #685
Anyone want to try mine since Moonbear won't be here for a while?
 
  • #686
MK, it is Samsung's big tower in Dubai?


Anyway, I don't see any problem using the internet as a resource. Half the fun is knowing where to look, and it's sometimes quite educational. I'll admit that I've used it to look up a few dates, and especially for help setting up my own clues. It's like anything else, if you cheat then you don't get the satisfaction out of it, and it's not like anyone's marking you!

Oh, except Danger, we're marking you... :-p
 
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  • #687
No, you have half of it right. :smile:



And the United Arab Emirates is in the Northern Hemisphere.
 
  • #688
Urrrm, it's half a mile tall?!


Ooh yeah, northern hemisphere, right!
 
  • #689
I'll tell you its more than 400 meters tall. The company only got permission to build HALF of it, that means there's TWO parts.

I'm sure you'll all be fair. You'll know the answer when you get it. But I will post it in white:

The answer is found in the last line of the first paragraph. Paste this in your address bar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Group#1990s Have a good day, Mk.
 
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  • #690
Mk said:
In 1846, Dewar's first master blender employed a method of handcrafting whisky, creating John Dewar and Sons' most treasured blend. After carefully blending selected quality malt and grain whiskies (each of which was at least 12 years old), the master blender - When satisfied with his creation-would "marry" the resulting blend. That kind of skill and knowledge has been passed down only from master blender to master blender over successive generations.
1) Scotch
2) A dewar

Woo hoo...some thinking outside the box required, huh? Now, the only part left is what is the dewar flask more commonly known as? (This is usually a brand name.)
 
  • #691
zoobyshoe said:
Dewars?...
Oh, looks like zooby got this part first. Depending on who gets the last part, a few folks might have to share the prize.
 
  • #692
zoobyshoe said:
I took it to be a fun thread to pass the time. No one's being graded. Anyone who knows the answer off the top of their head can automatically get it into the thread before anyone could possibly google it, so the well read people with good memories win the round anyway.
The no-Google rule applied to different trivia quizzes, not this one. The other ones weren't pass-the-torch games like this one though, it was just a list of 10 or 20 questions that would have been far too quickly answered if they were googled and was intended to get those threads to last awhile. This one doesn't need a no-Google rule, because the whole game stalls if nobody knows the answer (and with some of these obscure inventions, nobody would know it off the top of their head). Honestly, I look at it as both a challenge to the questioner and answerer. I consider it more like an internet scavenger hunt...here are some clues, now see if you can find it. If the answer can be googled quickly then the question was too easy (then again, that gives everyone a chance to play, not just those who are endless fonts of trivia).
 
  • #693
sears? just a guess, sears tower
 
  • #694
Woah, left this thread for a couple days...came back to find myself in the dust.

And speaking of "Googling" Moonbear, what was that again about verbifying brand names ?

Dewar is a great guess Zoob. Would the brand name Moonie's looking for be Thermos ? (obvious guess for someone working in Low-Temp Physics)

Zoob, you're up next.
 
  • #695
[sidetrack on the issue of googling] I have a short trivia quiz (on mostly obscure literary references) nearly ready. But it would be all too Googlable... [/sidetrack]
 
  • #696
Gokul43201 said:
[sidetrack on the issue of googling] I have a short trivia quiz (on mostly obscure literary references) nearly ready. But it would be all too Googlable... [/sidetrack]
If you explicitely say, "no googling" people will stick to the rule.


Go ahead and ask one Gokul, if you're sure "Thermos" is correct. I was thinking "Dewars" was the name both of the whiskey and the flask.
 
  • #697
I have intended that every question asked could be googled. I see this as a test of google proof questions, unless otherwise specified.
 
  • #698
Gokul43201 said:
Woah, left this thread for a couple days...came back to find myself in the dust.

And speaking of "Googling" Moonbear, what was that again about verbifying brand names ?

Dewar is a great guess Zoob. Would the brand name Moonie's looking for be Thermos ? (obvious guess for someone working in Low-Temp Physics)

Zoob, you're up next.

Yep, that was what I was looking for. To sum up, Dewar's scotch-whiskey (they're trademark includes a Highlander, and Highlander also hints at Scotch if you didn't know the trademark) in a Dewar flask, which is better known as a Thermos. :biggrin:
 
  • #699
And a nasty drunk!
 
  • #700
Ivan Seeking said:
I have intended that every question asked could be googled. I see this as a test of google proof questions, unless otherwise specified.

So, why don't we just amend the rules that we'll assume googling (or Yahooing or running off to the encyclopedias, or whatever other search method you prefer) is allowed unless the person asking the question specifically invokes a no-google rule. :smile: I know I carefully chose my question so google wasn't going to help (I thought my barbed wire question would work that way too, but I didn't know every book ever written on inventions included barbed wire as an example :smile:). That's what took me so long writing a question last night, because I tossed out another one that every clue I tried to write pointed way too quickly to the answer in google. I better start working on a back-up supply of questions so Zooby doesn't get miffed that I take so long next time. :biggrin:
 

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