How the 1880 Census Led to the Invention of the Computer

How did the 1880 US Census and the end of World War 2 lead to the invention of the computer? What was it that kickstarted the Information Age? Come with me as we find out how the need to count everyone in 1800s America directly lead to the modern information age and all the technology we take for granted.

So just how do you count everyone in a large country like the US, and once you've gathered all that data, how can a machine be instructed to sort and organise the information so it makes sense to someone?

In fact, how do we even program computers to sort data? Sorting is a fairly easy thing for people to do, we do it every time we want to play a game using cards. However what process would we take when using a computer?

In this video I go through the history of why it's necessary to automate this task, the people involved and then look at several sorting algorithms - bubble sort, insertion sort, quick sort and merge sort.

[itsanarse]

As someone who isn't that good at maths (probably through lack of interest from a young age) but very interested in electronic computers, this was a great video and easy to understand

[drogokhan]

I love your videos man! Great work! Hope it doesn't take long for the next one. Cheers!

[arronshutt]

I think the true figure for the UK population is somewhere 67 million and 70 million given that the last 2021 census gave it as between 65-67 million people. I think it's amazing how computers first were used to automate weaving and then were used to perform "big data" applications like the census and building computational tables to help speed up calculations for science and engineering. And building simulations and control software to put humanity into space.

And now we use computers for TikTok gifting react cam streams. Oh dear :\

[TheRonenglish]

nice video. clear and concise. I can not improve, so I will show this video in my class.

[Pirochiro]

Oops I've been using bubble sort as my go-to just because I know how to write it lol 😳

[ofHerWord]

GREAT! KEEP MAKING VIDEOS! Very informative. IDK if what you do or how you know this much but this information is needed. British computer scientist are always very good.

[electronicgarden]

I'm surprised that not you as a Brit consider Colossus to be the first electronic computing machine.