The back-and-forth motion of a swing is an example of a pendulum. We see pendulums in other areas of our lives as well, such as in grandfather (also known as longcase) clocks.ther factors, including a pendulum's length, can also affect its motion. Background. A pendulum is an object hung from a fixed point that swings back and forth under the action of gravity.
More than a century later, however, the worldâs first computer was actually built. 1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch card system to calculate the 1880 census, accomplishing the task in just three years and saving the government $5 million.
As early as 1936, Aiken had dreamed of building a massive calculator, in effect the worldâs first large-scale computer, but found it difficult to interest many other people in the project. He learned, in reading Passages From the Life of a Philosopher by Charles Babbage, that the early nineteenth century inventor had had a similar idea almost a hundred years before.