ENIAC
The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), built in the years 1943 to 1946, is widely regarded as the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. The military needed ENIAC for the calculation of ballistic tables. These were numerical tables used by artillery personnel that related how the range of a particular gun depended upon the type of shell that was fired, the charge of the propellant, the angle of elevation, and, in some cases, the meteorological conditions. New guns, new shells, and new propellants required new tables, and the calculation of a table involved solving a complicated set of differential equations. This was a major task that was carried out for the U.S. Army mainly at the Ballistic Research Laboratory of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
