full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Graham-Cumming: The greatest machine that never was

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The CPU could do the four fundamental functions of arithmetic — so atdiodin, multiplication, subtraction, division — which already is a bit of a feat in metal, but it could also do something that a computer does and a calculator doesn't: this machine could look at its own internal memory and make a decision. It could do the "if then" for bsiac praogrmerms, and that fundamentally made it into a computer. It could cpmtoue. It couldn't just calculate. It could do more.

Now, if we look at this, and we stop for a minute, and we think about chips today, we can't look inside a silicon chip. It's just so tiny. Yet if you did, you would see something very, very sailimr to this. There's this ilncrdibee complexity in the CPU, and this incredible regularity in the memory. If you've ever seen an electron microscope picture, you'll see this. This all looks the same, then there's this bit over here which is incredibly complicated.

Open Cloze


The CPU could do the four fundamental functions of arithmetic — so ________, multiplication, subtraction, division — which already is a bit of a feat in metal, but it could also do something that a computer does and a calculator doesn't: this machine could look at its own internal memory and make a decision. It could do the "if then" for _____ ___________, and that fundamentally made it into a computer. It could _______. It couldn't just calculate. It could do more.

Now, if we look at this, and we stop for a minute, and we think about chips today, we can't look inside a silicon chip. It's just so tiny. Yet if you did, you would see something very, very _______ to this. There's this __________ complexity in the CPU, and this incredible regularity in the memory. If you've ever seen an electron microscope picture, you'll see this. This all looks the same, then there's this bit over here which is incredibly complicated.

Solution


  1. incredible
  2. programmers
  3. similar
  4. compute
  5. basic
  6. addition

Original Text


The CPU could do the four fundamental functions of arithmetic — so addition, multiplication, subtraction, division — which already is a bit of a feat in metal, but it could also do something that a computer does and a calculator doesn't: this machine could look at its own internal memory and make a decision. It could do the "if then" for basic programmers, and that fundamentally made it into a computer. It could compute. It couldn't just calculate. It could do more.

Now, if we look at this, and we stop for a minute, and we think about chips today, we can't look inside a silicon chip. It's just so tiny. Yet if you did, you would see something very, very similar to this. There's this incredible complexity in the CPU, and this incredible regularity in the memory. If you've ever seen an electron microscope picture, you'll see this. This all looks the same, then there's this bit over here which is incredibly complicated.

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ngrams of length 2

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mathematical functions 2


Important Words


  1. addition
  2. arithmetic
  3. basic
  4. bit
  5. calculate
  6. calculator
  7. chip
  8. chips
  9. complexity
  10. complicated
  11. compute
  12. computer
  13. cpu
  14. decision
  15. division
  16. electron
  17. feat
  18. functions
  19. fundamental
  20. fundamentally
  21. incredible
  22. incredibly
  23. internal
  24. machine
  25. memory
  26. metal
  27. microscope
  28. minute
  29. multiplication
  30. picture
  31. programmers
  32. regularity
  33. silicon
  34. similar
  35. stop
  36. subtraction
  37. tiny
  38. today