Slot Machines

The word “slot” is an ancient term that describes the hollow at the base of the throat, just above the breastbone. The word is derived from the Old French esclot, which is of uncertain origin. It also has Old Norse roots, slod, meaning “hole”. The word was first used in a technical context in the 1520s, and the modern sense of “slot machine” appears in 1888.

During the 1980s, manufacturers of slot machines began incorporating electronics into their machines, and computer programs were developed to weight particular symbols in certain ways. This meant that symbols would appear only once on the player’s reel, but might take up several stops on multiple reels. The odds of hitting a winning combination became disproportionate to the frequency on the physical reel. In other words, the earlier slot machines were based on a mathematical formula. The odds of getting any one symbol were about 1/10.

Computers contain slots, which are openings in the motherboard for connecting expansion cards. The slot is an important part of the motherboard, since it allows users to expand the capacity of their computer by installing expansion boards or add-on boards. The first computer with slots was released by the Intel Corporation in 1997, and the second was manufactured by AMD in 1999. However, these two are not compatible. In the meantime, the most common computer with slots is a desktop. In modern computers, there are sockets instead of slots.