Random access memory

Imagine you have a big box of toys in your room. Each toy is like a piece of information that a computer needs to work with. When the computer is playing with one of the toys, it needs to be able to quickly find it again later when it wants to play with it again.

This is where random access memory (RAM) comes in! RAM is like a special toy box that the computer uses to keep all of its toys (or information) in. It's different from your regular toy box at home because it can store a lot more information and it's super fast at finding specific toys.

When your computer opens a program, it puts all of the information it needs to run that program into the RAM. Then, when you use the program, the computer can quickly access that information from the RAM instead of having to go find it on your hard drive or somewhere else.

RAM is also "random access" because the computer can get to any piece of information in the RAM just as quickly as it can get to any other piece. It doesn't have to go through all the other pieces of information like it might if it were using an external hard drive or something.

So basically, RAM is like a fancy toy box that the computer uses to store and quickly access all the information it needs to run your programs and do your work.