Have you ever wondered how a computer works? Well, it's really quite simple. A computer is actually pretty dumb It really only understands two things: on and off. I once knew a person like that, most of the time he was off. In the fancy code the computer uses on is 1 and off is 0. In computer jargon the 1s and 0s are called bits and when you have 8 of these bits you have a byte. No bits are not bits of food it's spelled B Y T E not B I T E. So unfortunately you can't tell your teacher that the computer ate your homework. 1 and 0 are called bits. This code is called the binary code. .
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A computer stores information in RAM or on a hard drive. RAM is short for random access memory and is only temporary. Random access and temporary also describe my sister's memory or lack of it really well. Don't worry this is as complicated as it gets. Think of RAM as your short-term memory. RAM uses electricity to store information and the information disappears as soon as the computer is turned off. My Dad loses information without being turned off he calls it old age. If you want to store information permanently you have to store it on the computer's hard drive. Information is stored on your hard drive magnetically so it doesn't disappear when your computer is turned off. .
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The brain of your computer is called the CPU, which is short for central processing unit. Sounds like something out a science fiction movie doesn't it? The CPU is the part of the computer that is responsible for carrying out the billions of calculations that are made so that the computer can do its boring job. The speed with which a computer processes data is calculated in terms of Megahertz. A CPU that is rated at 500 Megahertz can process 500 million bits of data in a second. The fastest CPU in today's personal computers is rated at 3 Gigahertz, which means that these personal computers can process 3 billion bits of information per second.