Calculator
How Calculators Work
There might have been an era when the most complicated calculations that people were required to make could be executed using their fingers or toes. However, nowadays, it's all but impossible for many people to imagine doing anything involving numbers -from math homework from tax forms to tipping servers in restaurants -- without the help of at least a basic pocket calculator. Indeed, electronic calculators are used so widely that it's hard to believe that they weren't widely used until the middle of the 20 th century.
Before the advent and development of the contemporary calculator there were other devices for computation. The abaci, for example, is a precursor to the calculator. It is likely to be of Babylonian origin early abaci can be believed to be boards on which the position of counters was used to represent numerals. However, the current abacus -- that some people still use today in China, Japan and the Middle East -- works by moving beads on wires that are strung on frames from Britannica: Abacus].
Throughout much of the last century, there were people who performed calculations with motor-assisted mechanical addition machines. Other types of machines used math tables and slide rules devices equipped with movable, graduated scales that depend on the type you're using, can do all kinds of trigonometry, from multiplication to The source is Britannica: Slide Rule].
In the 1960s, advances in integrated circuitry led the invention of electronic calculators but the early versions of the gadgets -- designed by companies such as Sharp and Texas Instruments -- looked very little like the one that you might carry today in your briefcase or backpack.
To learn more about the evolution of today's electronic calculator -- and to see how the demand from consumers on smaller, more compact calculators led the development of microchips that run our appliances every all day -- continue reading.
Advertisementhttps://fbe7c359baef375ed91a4619ee1bc775.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.htmlContents
- 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
Numerous electronics companies and inventors have claimed a first in the development of the electronic calculator. Japanese firm Sharp is believed to have invented the original computer-based desktop calculator called the CS-10A, in 1964. It was similar to a cash register, and was about half the price of a mid-sized vehicle [sources: Lewis, Sharp]. In 1967, Texas Instruments developed what is known as the first handheld and portable calculator which was gadget that could perform subtraction as well as subtraction, multiplication, and division as part of a project was nicknamed by the company "Cal Tech" [sources: Courier Mail, Texas Instrumentsand Courier Mail].
Utilizing "Cal Tech" technology, Canon created one of the first portable calculator to be used in commercial settings, that debuted in the year 1970, sporting the cost of $400 [source: Texas Instruments]. The next decade was an up-and-down battle between manufacturers to create calculators that were smaller, simpler to access and less expensive. In 1972, British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair introduced the Sinclair Executive, which is believed by many to be the world's most affordable pocket calculator [sources: The Press, Western Daily Press]. Its thickness was the same as cigarettes.
These continual advances on calculator technology were created by the advent of the single-chip microprocessor in the latter half of the 1960s. Before this time engineers had built the computing "brains" of calculators (and computers) using multiple chips or other components. The basic concept behind a single chip microprocessor is that it allows a whole central processing unit (CPU) to exist on a single silicon microchip. (To learn more about this type of technology, visit the article How Microprocessors operate.)
Intel Corp. created the first single-chip microprocessor that was commercially available -- it was called the Intel 4004 -- in 1971 [sources: Behar, Intel]. It was able to perform basic arithmetic with 4 bits of information at time. However, Intel's cofounder, Gordon Moore, predicted that the capabilities of one chip would increase by approximately each two years. This theory is referred to as "Moore's Law," and to this day, it remains to be true. Not only did calculators become smaller as they grew older, they also developed more advanced applications *Source: Intel].
Today, as well as advanced versions of the basic pocket calculator sophisticated scientific and graphing calculators are now available to be used by professionals and students such as engineers. A lot of them use widely-used computer languages and are programmable according to the specifications of the user. In fact the time that Texas Instruments introduced its TI-92 model in 1995, they called it "a calculator with the power of a computer lab" [source: Texas Instruments]. Many scientific and graphing calculators have the capacity to perform one or more of the following functions:
- Switching from the usual base-ten to other number systems (hexadecimal counting, which is a base-16 system)
- Utilizing scientific notation in order for calculating very large numbers
- Utilizing trigonometric and logarithm functions directly
- Utilizing constants like pi and e at greater levels of precision
- Utilizing complex numbers including fractions, formulas and equations
- Solving equations
- Analysis of statistics
- Using larger screens to figure out formulas and graph equations
Continue reading to the next section to learn details about circuit boards, solar cells, and other parts that make up the calculator.
Comments
Post a Comment