Why are computers slow?

Computers work slower at some times and faster at other times. A slowdown usually happens when two or more programs are running at once, including programs that the user may not know about. One task has to wait until another task is finished.

It’s interesting that we think our computers are slow. When computers were invented, people were amazed at how fast they were. Even today, a hand-held calculator can multiply and divide big numbers much faster than a person can. Now we are so used to computers doing complex tasks that we think they are slow when they keep us waiting for any time at all. But they are still handling information faster than we can.