The World's Largest Computer in 1951

  • Thread starter wolram
  • Start date
  • Tags
    Computer
In summary, the ENIAC was a massive machine weighing 30 tons, occupying 1,000 square feet of floor space, and containing over 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 18,000 vacuum tubes. It required 150 kilowatts of power to run, which was enough to light a small town. The final machine was less powerful than a $5 pocket calculator. The Russian Ekranoplan, also known as the Caspian Sea Monster, was a ground effect vehicle that could travel over 400 km/h and weighed 540 tons fully loaded. It was used as a high-speed military transport and could transport over 100 tonnes of cargo. The
  • #841
brewnog said:
Nope. The invention has nothing to do with chickens.
The automatic colonel plucker?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #842
We need a snorting smiley.

and the invention was obviously chicken wire :rolleyes:
 
  • #843
yomamma said:
the invention was obviously chicken wire :rolleyes:
I didn't know that chickens need to be plugged in.
 
  • #844
They do when they have their incubators on
 
  • #845
Danger, you get the next one
 
  • #846
No no no.

Guess mine first, you lazy bizitches.
 
  • #847
who was the person that invented...oh, brrewnog's here.
 
  • #848
yomamma said:
who was the person that invented...oh, brrewnog's here.

Ha, no such luck. :smile:

Since neither of you have the capacity to understand my subtle, clever clues, I'll give you the boring one instead. The invention was a new type of transport. It has nothing to do with chickens, turkeys, plucking machines, Colonels, kernels, Sergeant Majors, Wing Commanders or Flight Lieutenants.
 
  • #849
yomamma said:
the chicken or egg qustion.

I give up! And I'm not even guessing!
 
  • #850
brewnog said:
Since neither of you have the capacity to understand my subtle, clever clues, I'll give you the boring one instead.
Didn't help any, but it was amusing. I can't think of any kind of transport that was invented around that time with the possible exception of the hyrdofoil or hovercraft, and I think they're both a lot older than that.
 
  • #851
Give me an hour first, then give us the boring one.
 
  • #852
Danger said:
Didn't help any, but it was amusing. I can't think of any kind of transport that was invented around that time with the possible exception of the hyrdofoil or hovercraft, and I think they're both a lot older than that.

...The hovercraft was invented by Christopher Cockerell in 1956... Christopher Sydney Cockerell was born in 1910. He worked for the Radio Research Company until 1935 and then for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company from 1935 until 1951. During the war years, Christopher Cockerell worked with an elite team at Marconi to develop radar, a development which Churchill believed had a significant effect on the outcome of the Second World War, and Cockerell believed to be one of his greatest achievements. While at Marconi, Christopher Cockerell patented 36 of his ideas. Christopher Cockerell was knighted for his achievement in 1969...
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blhovercraft.htm
 
  • #853
Ivan Seeking said:
Quote:
...The hovercraft was invented by Christopher Cockerell in 1956...
Amazing! Even when I'm wrong, I'm right. :approve:

Or more likely, even when I'm right, I'm wrong. :frown:
 
  • #854
I bet you wish you could make smiles smaller huh?
 
  • #855
yomamma said:
I bet you wish you could make smiles smaller huh?
That's been irritating the hell out of me for quite some time now, yes.
 
  • #856
So is Danger up?
 
  • #857
You'll just have to do what BT does and draw them yourself. that's a pretty low-level, BT
 
  • #858
Ivan Seeking said:
So is Danger up?
I didn't get it, you did.

yomamma said:
You'll just have to do what BT does and draw them yourself.
I drew some up in Illustrator and put them in ImageShack, but when I tried them in preview mode they looked like blobs.
 
  • #859
The Racetrack upon which these move tells a tale, thus the mystery.
 
  • #860
Ivan Seeking said:
The Racetrack upon which these move tells a tale, thus the mystery.
Comets?...
 
  • #861
Not comets.
 
  • #862
Binary stars?
 
  • #863
Hadrons? (10)
 
  • #864
No, and I'm not quite sure what inspires that thought...

I would suggest the 23rd Psalm
 
  • #865
My last post was in response to Zooby, but no, not Hadrons
 
  • #866
Ivan Seeking said:
No, and I'm not quite sure what inspires that thought...
If that's in reference to my guess, I was thinking of a cyclotron.

Ivan Seeking said:
I would suggest the 23rd Psalm
Not me, dude! :eek: I won't look something up in the encyclopedia for this; I'm sure as hell not going into the Bible (as if I even have one :rolleyes: ).
 
  • #867
'Read' heads?
 
  • #868
Danger said:
If that's in reference to my guess, I was thinking of a cyclotron.


Not me, dude! :eek: I won't look something up in the encyclopedia for this; I'm sure as hell not going into the Bible (as if I even have one :rolleyes: ).

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
 
  • #869
Ivan Seeking said:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
For I am the meanest son-of-a-***** in the valley.
I have that poster. In fact, I'm going to have it painted on the trunk of the Roadrunner whenever I get it restored. :biggrin:
 
  • #870
Ivan Seeking said:
The Racetrack upon which these move tells a tale, thus the mystery.
Ivan Seeking said:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
I'm drawing a blank.
 
  • #871
Known to happen but never observed, it seems that like water, the wind can move rocks.
 
  • #872
Ivan Seeking said:
Known to happen but never observed, it seems that like water, the wind can move rocks.
That really doesn't rhyme very well. :wink:
 
  • #873
Oh man... I got to go check out some other stuff. Maybe it'll come to me when I'm not paying attention to it.
 
  • #874
Got it!
Death Valley Moving Rocks
Address:http://www.billandcori.com/deathvalley/dv_moving_rocks.htm

I should have been able to put it together from the psalm clue, because "Death Valley" was one of the things that occurred to me, but I didn't. I had read about the moving rocks a long time ago and forgotten about them.
 
  • #875
zoobyshoe said:
Got it!
Death Valley Moving Rocks
It's a good thing I checked back when I saw your post show up, rather than waste any more time on it. I've never heard of those things, so I certainly never would have gotten it.
 

Similar threads

Is Alan Turing given too much credit when it comes to computers?
Replies
29
Views
3K
How to compute flexure and failure loads of acrylic sheets
Replies
4
Views
14K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top