👉 To divide into portions and dispense.
Alright class, settle down, let’s take a look! That dictionary definition – “to divide into portions and dispense” – gives us a good starting point, but it doesn't quite capture the feeling of ‘distributed’. Think of it like this: imagine you have one big pie. If you just hold onto that whole pie yourself, that’s centralized, right? It’s all in one place. But if you slice that pie into many smaller pieces and give each piece to a different friend – that is distribution! It means spreading something out, sharing it amongst multiple places or people. “Distributed” describes how something isn't just held by one thing, but spread across several. It’s about breaking things up and letting them go. Here are some examples to help solidify the idea: Distributed learning: Instead of everyone learning from a single teacher, knowledge is shared amongst many students and resources. Distributed computing: A big job isn't done by one powerful computer, but broken up into smaller tasks completed by lots of computers working together. Does that make sense? Do you have any questions about how we spread things around – or are you ready to move on to the next concept?