Terms and Names Chapters 1-3

Question 1

Moore’s Law

Answer 1

A trend where engineers have reduced switch sizes by half about every two years.

Question 2

Computer Program

Answer 2

Consists of instructions that a computer executes (or runs), like multiplying numbers or printing a number to a screen.

Question 3

Computational Thinking

Answer 3

Creating a sequence of instructions to solve a problem.

Question 4

Algorithm

Answer 4

A sequence of instructions that solves a problem.

Question 5

Embedded Computer

Answer 5

a computer inside another electrical device, like inside a TV, car, printer, thermostat, satellite, etc.

Question 6

Bit

Answer 6

a single 0 or 1

Question 7

Byte

Answer 7

Eight bits (like 11000101)

Question 8

ASCII

Answer 8

a popular code for characters (American Standard Cod for Information Interchange). uses 7 bits

Question 9

Unicode

Answer 9

a character encoding standard whose codes can have more bits than ASCII and thus can represent over 100,000 items

Question 10

Hardware

Answer 10

physical parts of a computer

Question 11

software

Answer 11

the programs (the 0’s and the 1’s) that instruct the computer what to do

Question 12

CPU

Answer 12

Hardware that runs program instructions and controls other hardware. (central processing unit)

Question 13

Memory

Answer 13

hardware that stores data. Memory is also called RAM (Random Access Memory)

Question 14

RAM

Answer 14

A computer’s memory; holds data temporarily. When electricity is turned off, all data is lost.

Question 15

Computer drive

Answer 15

Stores data even after electricity is turned off

Question 16

virtual memory

Answer 16

Uses storage device as “pretend” memory

Question 17

Server

Answer 17

Any computer than can share or deliver or serve data/files/pages/docs/videos/etc to other computers or over a network.

Question 18

Speech recognition

Answer 18

converts audio into text by recognizing spoken words

Question 19

speech input

Answer 19

involves a user speaking into a microphone with an app converting the speech to text.

Question 20

computer monitor

Answer 20

a standalone output device that displays text, images, and video on a screen.

Question 21

inkjet printer

Answer 21

sprays small drops of ink to create text and images. A motor moves the printhead back and forth across the paper, and pauses for a fraction of a second to spray ink at the appropriate location.

Question 22

monochrome printer

Answer 22

prints text and images in varying tones of black

Question 23

color printer

Answer 23

prints text and images in a wide range of colors, and typically contains cartridges for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

Question 24

laser printer

Answer 24

contains a rotating ink drum that is electrostatically charged by a laser. The charged areas form a pattern that picks up powdered ink, or toner, and places the ink on paper. The paper next passes through a fuser unit that uses heat and pressure to permanently bond the ink to the paper.

Question 25

transistor

Answer 25

a switch that can be switched on to let electricity flow from a first to second wire, or switched off, controlled by electricity on a third wire.

Question 26

Internet Protocol (IP)

Answer 26

the basic low-level rules for communicating data over the Internet.

Question 27

router

Answer 27

a specialized computer in a network that receives a packet from a computer/router and sends that packet to another computer/router on a path towards the packet’s destination.