DJ Dates

Moore’s Law as Illustrated using Blowtorches and Calculators

The $100 calculator from 1972 shown in this video would have actually cost the equivalent of $525 in 2010 dollars due to inflation.

This video is licensed under the creative commons BY-NC-SA license. Please feel free to use this video in your classroom.

In 1972, my dad bought this four function calculator for $100.

Today we can buy a little four function calculator with the same capabilities for just $1.

Moore’s Law is the adage that the number of transistors that can be put on a single microchip doubles every two years. Because computers are limited to a fraction of the speed of light, the smaller and denser we can make computer chips, the more powerful and capable computers can become. However, another benefit is that computers and digital devices continually get smaller and cheaper, like our calculator.

A Window into the Hard Drive

This video shows the inside of a hard drive during various operations, such as copying and deleting files, defragmentation, and formatting the drive. This video is licensed under the creative commons BY-NC-SA license. Please feel free to use this video in your classroom.

Before we get started with the hard drive, let’s identify the different parts. The shiny disc in the harddrive is called the platter. Instead of being made out of polycarbonate plastic like a CD or DVD, the hard drive platter is made out of metals such as nickel, cobalt, and chromium. Often, hard drives will have more than one platter, such as in this hard drive which has two platters stacked on top of each other. In the middle of the hard drive platter is the spindle. This hard drive rotates the platter at 5400 revolutions per minute. High performance hard drives may rotate at speeds up to 7200 or 10,000 RPM.