Which term refers to the machines, wiring, and other physical components of a computer system?

• A. Hardware
• B. Software
• C. Cloud
• D. Router

Answer: (A)

Think about the difference between things you can touch and things you can’t. The term that covers the machines, wiring, and other physical components of a computer system is hardware. It encompasses all tangible parts you can physically interact with, like the motherboard, CPU, memory, power supply, cables, and peripherals. Software, by contrast, means the programs and data—the instructions that tell the hardware what to do and how to operate. The cloud refers to online services and remote servers rather than local, physical components. A router is an example of hardware, a single piece of the physical setup, but the broader category for all those tangible pieces is hardware.