What is Software?
If hardware is the “body” of the computer, then software is the “mind.”
The Invisible Instructions
Software is a set of instructions that tell the computer hardware exactly what to do. You can’t touch software because it is just information stored inside the computer’s memory.
Hardware vs. Software
Think of a music player:
- The Hardware is the device itself, the buttons, and the screen.
- The Software is the app that plays the music and the music files themselves.
Without software, a computer would just be a box of metal and plastic that doesn’t know how to do anything!
Questions
- Can you touch software? Why or why not?
- If you are playing a video game on a console, which part is the software?
- Why is hardware useless without software?