ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Selectron tube

A selectron tube is a really old-fashioned computer thing that's like a combination of a light bulb and a TV. It's been around for a super long time, since before most of our parents were born!

Imagine you have a big light bulb with a lot of wires coming out of it, kind of like a spider with a lot of legs. Each wire is like a pathway for tiny electrons to travel along. The electrons are like very small balls that are invisible but can move around and create energy.

To use a selectron tube, you need to be able to control where the electrons go. You do this by sending them through certain wires and stopping them from going through others. It's like a big puzzle that you have to solve to get the selectron tube to work properly.

Once you've got the electrons flowing where you want them to go, they create a pattern of light on a screen that shows you information. This is kind of like a TV - you can see pictures and words on the screen!

Overall, a selectron tube is a very old-fashioned way to show information and do calculations. They were mostly used a long time ago in big machines that took up a lot of space, but now we use much smaller and more efficient ways to do the same things!