Question

The physical part of a computer is known as:
A) Software
B) Hardware
C) Operating system
D) System unit

Answer 1

Hint:Physical parts of a computer are the parts of the computer that we can touch physically. More precisely speaking, every object that has some mass and without which the computer can’t function properly is known as the physical part of the computer.

Complete step by step answer:
Software: Software of a computer is actually a collection of data or some type of instructions that dictates the computer how to perform some work. From this definition it is quite evident that software is a completely massless collection of instructions. So, it can’t be the physical part of a computer.

Hardware: Computer hardware is the actual physical parts of a computer it consists of. This includes the central processing unit(CPU), monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, motherboard etc. In contrast to the software each hardware has some amount of mass in it and that’s why they are the physical part of the computer.

Operating system: Operating system is a kind of system software that makes a bridge between the hardware and software of a computer i.e. it manages the hardware and software resources to make the computer provide its service to us. Just like all software operating systems are massless and not a physical part.

System unit: The system unit of a computer is the part of a computer that houses the primary devices of the computer that operate and produce some results for complex calculations. It includes CPU, Motherboard, RAM, graphics card and other components. Although it has some fixed mass but it doesn’t perform actively for any computation made in a computer. So, it’s not a physical part of the computer.

Correct answer:
The physical part of a computer is known as the (b) Hardware.

Note: Some students might have some misconception about the software and OS used to operate a computer. They think that when we install some OS or software from an external source (say pen-drive or CD) then we actually transfer some object (with mass). But this concept is completely wrong. Any electronic data or information is not something that has some mass. It just tells RAM or the motherboard what its binary state will be or gives some instruction in binary form to perform some task.