ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

John Vincent Atanasoff

John Vincent Atanasoff was a really smart man who lived a long time ago, even before your parents were born! He invented something called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) and it was super cool because it was one of the first ever computers!

You know how we use computers to play games or do homework? Well, John Atanasoff was one of the very first people to think about how we could use a machine to do those things. Before the ABC, people had to use typewriters or pencils and paper to do their work.

The ABC was really special because it could do a lot of math calculations really quickly. In fact, it could do calculations much faster than people could! This made it really helpful for scientists and mathematicians who needed to do a lot of math for their work.

When John Atanasoff made the ABC, he worked really hard with his friends to figure out how to make it work. They came up with lots of new ideas, like using electricity to move tiny switches called "transistors" inside the machine.

And that's the story of John Vincent Atanasoff, one of the smartest people in history who invented one of the first computers!