Упражнения: Now and then. Life in the past

The development of computers is linked to Maths. It's possible to say that computers first started with the invention of the abacus in Babylonia (now Iraq) in the fourth century BC. Wilhelm Schickard, a German professor, built the first calculator in 1623, but it only worked with six numbers. The German Konrad Zuse made the first modern calculator in 1941. Colossus was a British computer which was used for breaking codes. It began working in 1943. The next step towards the modern computer was the Universal Automatic Computer, which was developed in 1951. It could store 12,000 numbers and letters. In the 1960s a typical minicomputer cost around $20,000. Not many people could buy a computer then: they were too expensive. Word processing was invented in 1968 by Doug Engelbart. The computer giant Microsoft began its life in the 1970s. By 1977, the computer company Apple was selling computers for $1,195. The IBM computer was released in 1981, and the Apple Macintosh was on sale in 1984. The computer program Microsoft Windows 1.0 was in the shops in 1985. By 1989, Microsoft's sales reached $1 billion.

The development of computers is linked to Maths. It's possible to say that computers first started with the invention of the abacus in Babylonia (now Iraq) in the fourth century BC. Wilhelm Schickard, a German professor, built the first calculator in 1623, but it only worked with six numbers. The German Konrad Zuse made the first modern calculator in 1941. Colossus was a British computer which was used for breaking codes. It began working in 1943. The next step towards the modern computer was the Universal Automatic Computer, which was developed in 1951. It could store 12,000 numbers and letters. In the 1960s a typical minicomputer cost around $20,000. Not many people could buy a computer then: they were too expensive. Word processing was invented in 1968 by Doug Engelbart. The computer giant Microsoft began its life in the 1970s. By 1977, the computer company Apple was selling computers for $1,195. The IBM computer was released in 1981, and the Apple Macintosh was on sale in 1984. The computer program Microsoft Windows 1.0 was in the shops in 1985. By 1989, Microsoft's sales reached $1 billion.