From beads to your pocket — meet the machine that changed everything!
Let's find out how it works!
How does a computer add 2 + 3?
The story through time
Tap each moment to hear it
See it for real
Real photos. Tap a card to see how it works.
Abacus
This is a real abacus. Long before computers, people slid these little beads to count and add numbers super fast!
Photo: Nicolas1981 · CC BY-SA 3.0
ENIAC, an Early Computer
Meet ENIAC, one of the very first computers. It was as big as a whole room and had thousands of glowing tubes inside!
Photo: TexasDex (English Wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 3.0
A Microchip Up Close
This shiny maze is a microchip, the tiny brain inside computers and phones. It is smaller than your fingernail!
Photo: Zephyris · CC BY-SA 3.0
Ada Lovelace
This is Ada Lovelace. Almost 200 years ago she wrote the world's first computer program, before computers even existed!
Photo: Alfred Edward Chalon · Public domain
Learn step by step
What is a Computer?
What does a computer actually do?
Tap to hear 🔊What is a Computer?
Did you know? The first computers were as big as an entire room!
Ask the AI Tutor →Hardware
What is hardware?
Tap to hear 🔊Hardware
Did you know? A computer can have hundreds of tiny hardware parts inside it!
Ask the AI Tutor →Software
What is software?
Tap to hear 🔊Software
Did you know? One smartphone app can have millions of instructions inside it!
Ask the AI Tutor →The Mouse
Why is it called a mouse?
Tap to hear 🔊The Mouse
Did you know? The very first mouse was made of wood in 1964!
Ask the AI Tutor →Screen and Keyboard
What do the screen and keyboard do?
Tap to hear 🔊Screen and Keyboard
Did you know? A standard keyboard has 104 keys — that is a lot of buttons!
Ask the AI Tutor →Keep going
Next: how computers talk to each other → the Internet