Computers.

            It can safely be said that not a day passes without the appearance of some  new electronic device. I’m going to speak  about computers.

              The first general purpose to use computer for commercial and scientific applications was invented in 1949. Today computers have become quite common, and they can do things that only ten years ago would found fantastic.

            A computer is a device which, begin supplied with program, can perform highly complex mathematical operations. It can store and select data that has been put into it. It can do a great amount of complicated work in a phenomenally short time.

            The first major use of computers is in processing huge information flows. A computer can collect data 24 hours a day, seven days a week (without a single coffee break ! ). It’s much cheaper and more reliable to have a computer collect data then to pay a person to do the same thing .

            Computers make it possible to conduct experiments and measurements in place that cannot be reached or visited or are to dangerous for people: for example they are good at watching what is happening inside an atom smasher or nuclear reactor, or what the conditions are below the surface of the ocean. Computers have gone to the moon , they are sent deep into the earth into caves and mines, they are also used to collect and analyze data on earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and deluges.

            The second major use of computers is the automation of complex manufacturing methods, that is their industrial application.

            At plants and factories computers can take over monotonous operations while people can perform more creative tasks. At a factory computers keep track of the manufacturing processes and feed instructions into the control equipment. And important computers use in industry is to protect the life and safety of people. Computers can be attached to gas sensors in mines, to radiation sensors in areas where radioactive substances are used, they give a warning if there is any leakage.

            The third major use of computers is to provide mathematical models of situation as basic for research and economic planning. Computers help people to solve complicated scientific and engineering problems.

            Computers can be designed for specific purposes, such as controlling manufacture of tools and parts, guiding airplane flights, keeping bank accounts making weather forecasts, guiding underwater voyages of atomic submarines, even playing chess.

            Computers are very useful in modern hospitals. Today there are medical computer centers , where all existing knowledge of symptoms of various diseases and of there treatment is analyzed. In medical industry computers are now used inside the x-ray machines and in hospital laboratories to analyze all kinds of specimens, from human tissue and blood to various chemicals and toxins.

            The number of branches of industry where computers are used is great, but we should remember that even a very clever computer can’t substitute a human, it can only help. A computer is but a machine it is indifferent to what kind of task it is given-guiding a flight of a nuclear missile or recording of electrocardiogram, this depend on a person at the computer.