Calculator
How Calculators Work
There could have been some time when the most complex calculations people were required to make could be completed with the help of their fingers and toes. But these days, it's all but impossible for many people to imagine working on anything that involves numbersfor everything from math assignments and tax return filings to tipping server at restaurants -- without at least a basic pocket calculator. Electronic calculators are now so commonplace that it's hard to believe they didn't become widely used until the middle of the 20 th century.
Before the invention that modern calculator prior to the invention of the modern calculator, there were different tools for computing. The abaci is an example. It is a precursor to the calculator. Probably originally of Babylonian origin The earliest abaci can be believed to have been boards where the positions of counters indicated numbers. The contemporary abacus -- that many people still use from China, Japan and the Middle East -- works by moving beads on wires that are strung on frames [source: Britannica: Abacus].
Through the course of the last century, there were people who performed calculations with motor-assisted mechanical addition machines. Others used mathematical tables or slide rule -- instruments with adjustable, graduated scales which, depending on what type you've got, can perform all kinds of trigonometry, from multiplication to The source is Britannica: Slide Rule[source: Britannica: Slide Rule].
In the 1960s, advancements in integrated circuitry led directly to the electronic calculator, but the initial versions of the gadgets -- designed by companies like Sharp and Texas Instruments -- looked far from the type you may be carrying around today in your briefcase or backpack.
To find out more about the technological advancements that led to the modern electronic calculator and discover how consumer demand of smaller-sized calculators lead the invention of microchips which power appliances that we use every day -- read on.
Advertisementhttps://fbe7c359baef375ed91a4619ee1bc775.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html Contents
- Evolution of the Electronic Calculator
- Calculator Components
- How a Calculator Calculates
- Impact of Calculator Technology
Evolution of the Electronic Calculator
Graphing calculators have many advanced functions, including solving and graphing equations.(c) ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/MBBIRDY
Many electronics companies as well as inventors may claim to have a first in the development of the electronic calculator. Japanese firm Sharp is believed to have developed the first desktop calculator that was the CS-10A, in 1964. This model resembled a money register and cost about twice the cost of a mid-sized automobile [sources: Lewis, Sharp]. As of 1967, Texas Instruments developed what was dubbed the first handheld, portable calculator which was device which could do addition as well as subtraction, multiplication, and division -- in a venture that was dubbed by the company "Cal Tech" [sources: Courier Mail, Texas Instruments[sources: Courier Mail, Texas instruments].
Utilizing "Cal Tech" technology, Canon created one of the first portable calculator for commercial use, which was launched in the year 1970 with an initial price that was $400. [source: Texas Instruments]. The following years were something of a race between manufacturers to make calculators smaller, more affordable and less costly. In 1972, British designer Sir Clive Sinclair introduced the Sinclair Executive, which is often regarded by some as the world's first pocket calculator (sources: The Press, Western Daily Press]. Its weight was similar to cigarettes.
These continued advancements in calculator technology were enabled by the invention of the single-chip microprocessor in the 1960s. Before this time, engineers built the computing "brains" of calculators (and computers) with multiple chips , or other components. Basically, a single-chip microprocessor allows an entire central processing unit (CPU) to be located on one silicon microchip. (To learn more about this type of technology, visit How Microprocessors work.)
Intel Corp. created the first single-chip microprocessor that was commercially available -- The Intel 4004 -- in 1971 [sources: Behar, Intel]. It was able to perform basic arithmetic, and four bits of information per second. But Intel's co-founder, Gordon Moore, predicted that the capabilities of an individual chip would increase about 2 times per year. This theory is referred to as "Moore's Law," and as of today, it is as true. Not only did calculators get smaller with time, but they also became more capable of sophisticated software *Source: Intel].
Today, in addition to advanced versions of the basic pocket calculator advanced graphing and scientific calculators are used by professionals as well as students like engineers. A lot of them use widely-used computer languages and are programmed to meet the user's needs. In fact the time that Texas Instruments introduced its TI-92 model in 1995, they called the model "a calculator with the power of a computer lab" [source: Texas Instruments]. Many scientific and graphing calculators are capable of several of these things:
- Moving from the base-ten system to other systems of number (hexadecimal counting, is it a basis-16-based system)
- Utilizing scientific notation to calculate huge numbers
- Using logarithms and trigonometric functions directly
- Working with constants such pi and e to higher levels of accuracy
- Using complex numbers as well as formulas, fractions and other complex numbers
- Solving equations
- Analyzing statistics
- Utilizing larger displays to work out graphs and formulas
Follow our next chapter to find out how solar panels, circuit boards, along with other components that comprise a calculator.
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