How Did the First Computers Work and What Made Them So Slow?

The first computers were huge machines that used switches and lights to do math problems, like a very slow, very tired kid doing homework.

Imagine you're helping your brother count his toy cars. You have to flip a switch for each car he adds or removes. That’s like how the first computers worked: they used switches, called transistors, that turned on and off to represent numbers, just like lights on a traffic signal.

These early computers were also super slow, like a typewriter with a broken keyboard. If you wanted to add two numbers, the computer had to move little pieces called relays back and forth, it was like turning pages in a book one by one instead of flipping through them all at once.

They were slow because they used bulbs and wires, not tiny chips like today’s computers. It was like trying to send messages with a walkie-talkie that only worked every few minutes, it took time for each part to react, so the whole machine had to wait before it could do the next step.

That’s why it took hours for them to solve problems that we can do in seconds today!