What is computer?

Computers are all around us from laptop computers to smartphones to smart watches. They're changing the way that we live our lives but have you ever asked yourself what exactly is a computer? A computer is an electronic device that manipulates information or data. The computer sees data as ones and zeros but it knows how to combine them into much more complex things such as a photo, movie, website, game, and much more. Computers use a combination of hardware and software. Hardware is any physical part of the computer which includes the internal components and the external parts like the monitor and keyboard. Software is any set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do such as a web browser media player or word processor. When most people say computer, they're talking about a personal computer. This can be a desktop computer or a laptop which has basically the same capabilities but in a more portable package. Personal computers come in a few different styles. The most common type uses the windows operating system. Mac or Macintosh computers feature the mac OS operating system while chromebooks run on chrome OS. Smartphones and other mobile devices mostly use the iOS or Android operating systems; Computers come in many other shapes and sizes. TVs, game consoles, and even appliances like refrigerators can have built-in computers, although they may not do everything a desktop or laptop can. There's another type of computer that plays an important role in our lives: Servers. A server sends information to other computers on a network. In fact, every time you use the internet, web servers deliver the web pages that you want to see to your computer. Servers are also used in many offices to store and share files. As you can see, there are many types of computers out there, and each one plays a part in our modern world. There are many different types of computers, but they all use similar parts to operate. Starting with a standard desktop model, the computer case holds the main components of the computer. This is where the actual processing happens today. Most cases are what we call tower cases which means they stand up vertically but they can also come in other shapes and sizes. To view things on your computer, you'll need a monitor. The monitor uses the video processor inside your computer case to display images, text, and other content. Most monitors have an LCD and LED display, both of which are very thin so they don't take up much space. To interact with your computer, you'll need a keyboard and a mouse. Keyboards come in many different styles, including wireless and ergonomic. The mouse is used to control the mouse pointer on the screen so you can click and interact with your computer. Most mice detect movement using an optical sensor on the bottom. Underneath, you'll find a small electronic guy. Laptops combine all of these things into one that includes the components that are normally inside the computer case plus a built-in screen. Keyboard and touchpad. The touchpad is a small touch sensitive area that takes the place of a traditional mouse. It lets you control the mouse pointer using a drawing motion with your finger. Laptops offer the best of both worlds when it comes to portability. You can use them on the go thanks to the built-in battery. Or you can connect a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse, effectively turning your laptop into a desktop. So those are the basic parts of any computer setup. Every computer has a large circuit board called a motherboard. This contains some of the most important parts of the computer, such as the cpu, also known as the central processing unit or processor. CPU can be considered the brain of the computer because it processes information and carries out commands. Since it tends to get hot, it's covered by a piece of metal called a heat sink, which draws heat away from the processor. The motherboard also contains the computer's ram or random access memory. This is the short-term memory that the computer uses whenever it's performing calculations.