summary this has introduced computerscomputer scienceand programming here is summary of some of the key conceptsa computer is universal information-processing machine it can carry out any process that can be described in sufficient detail description of the sequence of steps for solving particular problem is called an algorithm algorithms can be turned into software (programsthat determines what the hardware (physical machinecan and does accomplish the process of creating software is called programming computer science is the study of what can be computed computer scientists use the techniques of designanalysisand experimentation computer science is the foundation of the broader field of computing which includes areas such as networkingdatabasesand information management systemsto name few basic functional view of computer system comprises central processing unit (cpu)main memorysecondary memoryand input and output devices the cpu is the brain of the computer that performs simple arithmetic and logical operations information that the cpu acts on (data and programsis stored in main memory (rammore permanent information is stored on secondary memory devices such as magnetic disksflash memoryand optical devices information is entered into the computer via input devicesand output devices display the results programs are written using formal notation known as programming language there are many different languagesbut all share the property of having precise syntax (formand semantics (meaningcomputer hardware only understands very low-level language known as machine language programs are usually written using human-oriented high-level languages such as python high-level language must either be compiled or interpreted in order for the computer to understand it high-level languages are more portable than machine language python is an interpreted language one good way to learn about python is to use an interactive shell for experimentation python program is sequence of commands (called statementsfor the python interpreter to execute python includes statements to do things such as print output to the screenget input from the usercalculate the value of mathematical expressionand perform sequence of statements multiple times (loopa mathematical model is called chaotic if very small changes in the input lead to large changes in the resultsmaking them seem random or unpredictable the models of many real-world phenomena exhibit chaotic behaviorwhich places some limits on the power of computing