The computer as we know it today had its beginning in the 19th century with a guy named Charles Babbage, who was an English mechanical engineer and mathematics professor. He conceptualized and designed the Analytical Engine, and it was this design that the basic framework of the computers of today are based on.

A) True

B) False

The correct answer is B) False.

Explanation:

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was an English engineer and professor who is credited with coming up with the concept of the Analytical Engine, the first computer, in 1837. A steam-powered machine, the analytical engine was a fully programmable computer that it could be instructed to perform different operations through a series of punched cards. However, Babbage could never finish his analytical engine before his death in 1871. While it was incredibly advanced for its age, this early computer and Babbage's work fell into obscurity. The first electronic computers designed in the 1940s and 1950s were designed independently, although they still recreated (unknowingly) some of the ideas first created by Babbage a century before. In later decades, Babbage's work would be rediscovered and appraised, and a project to create a working analytical engine is underway, hoping to finish a working unit by 2021.