Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: so many questions on 06/11/2010 02:30:02
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Boyd Foster asked the Naked Scientists:
Hi guys,
Can you please explain what computer science is. In laymen terms how do computers store data? How data is transferred, which become images, sound, text etc. What differentiates operating systems? Why viruses effect some systems and not others? What are algorithms?
By the way I want to say thanks for all the free science lessons. I found myself in a meeting the other day explaining the difference between fission and fusion reactors until I realized no one was interested, as it had nothing to do with the meetings subject.
Boyd from Australia
What do you think?
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It would take at least one substantial book to provide a reasonable set of answers to those questions [:D]
Maybe you could narrow the question down a bit?
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Well you've certainly come to the right place for an answer to those questions.
To answer all your questions, we need to look inside the computer (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbestsmileys.com%2Fcomputer2%2F2.gif&hash=90cbf55c4557c51ac829cfdcdf56999f)
Well you've certainly come to the right place for an answer to those questions.
Sadley, however, I am not the right person to supply such answers. (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-computer001.gif&hash=7dcb263fe729bdf0b70a19821705a7db) (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)
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It would take at least one substantial book to provide a reasonable set of answers to those questions [:D]
Maybe you could narrow the question down a bit?
Amazing sure goes to show us, it takes a book of information, to tell us how a virtual book works.
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The CPU the brain, the timing and instruction set delivered in 1's and 0's using binary math, this will give you a start...
google these three individual items and it will smother you in information catastrophically.
The CPU is comprised of three main parts:
ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit): Does the actual logical comparisons that need to be processed.
Control Unit: Can execute or store the results coming out of the ALU.
Registers: Stores the data that is to be executed next.
These primary parts will be the bases to what you want.
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Thanks guys,
I probably now have more questions than answers, I'm still not sure what is meant by the term computer science.
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Thanks guys,
I probably now have more questions than answers, I'm still not sure what is meant by the term computer science.
I'll probably get some heat for this, but the name "Computer Science" is meaningless. The design of computer hardware is really Computer Engineering. Early on, the software folks felt a desire to differentiate themselves from the hardware folks, hence the term "Computer Science".
However, they got it wrong. They should really have called it "The Science of Computing", or "The Math of Computing", and, in fact, at least one university that I know of has a School of Computing Science, and awards degrees in that name.
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Geezer:
I agree.
Steve
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Geezer:
I agree.
Steve
If we're lucky, this thread will drop off the radar before the computer scientists have a chance to launch a counteroffensive [;D]