Computer science is barely about computers. It's about solving problems with a recipe so precise that a completely mindless machine can follow it — an algorithm. Get the recipe right and the computer will run it a billion times without getting bored, getting tired, or making a single typo. Get it wrong and it'll do exactly the wrong thing a billion times, just as cheerfully.

Maths you can boss around

Underneath, it's mathematics you can give orders to: logic, numbers, and step-by-step proof. Everything a computer has ever known is built from just two digits, 0 and 1 — and from those two it conjures words, music, photos, games, and entire worlds.

Best friends with physics

It runs in both directions with physics: every chip is a tiny chunk of physics flicking switches billions of times a second — and computers pay it back by simulating physics, so the gravity, explosions and bouncing balls in your favourite game are physics engines doing maths very, very fast. (And when something glitches, remember: the machine did exactly what you told it — which is why every bug is secretly your fault. 😅)

Computer science on the Primer is just getting started — here's what's on the roadmap.