Calculator
How Calculators Work
There may have been an era when the most complicated computations people required to perform could have been executed using their fingers or toes. However, nowadays, it's all but impossible for most people to imagine doing anything involving numbers -from math homework to tax returns to tipping servers in restaurants without the aid of at the very least a pocket calculator. Electronic calculators are so ubiquitous that it's hard to believe they weren't widely used until the middle of the 20 th century.
Before the invention of the modern calculator prior to the invention of the modern calculator, there were other tools to compute. The abacus, for example, is an ancestor of today's calculator. Perhaps from Babylonian origin, early abaci were believed to have been boards where the positions of counters indicated numerical values. However, the current abacus -- which some people still use today across China, Japan and the Middle East -- works by transferring beads across wires that are strung over a frame from Britannica: Abacus].
For the majority of the century, there were people who performed computations using motor-assisted adding machines and others used mathematical tables as well as slide rule devices that have adjustable scales and graduated ones that are, based on the kind you've got, can perform everything from multiplication to trigonometry The source is Britannica: Slide Rule[source: Britannica: Slide Rule.
In the 1960s, advances in integrated circuitry led directly to the creation of electronic calculators, however, the first versions of these calculators -- made by companies like Sharp as well as Texas Instruments -- looked far from the type you may be carrying around today in your briefcase or backpack.
For more information about the evolution of today's electronic calculator and discover how the demand from consumers of smaller-sized calculators lead to the creation of microchips that power our appliances every day -- read on.
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
A variety of electronics firms and inventors might claim to be first when it comes to the development of the electronic calculator. Japanese firm Sharp is believed to have invented the very pioneering desk calculator called the CS-10A in 1964. This model resembled a money register and was priced as much as mid-sized car [sources: Lewis, Sharp]. As of 1967, Texas Instruments developed what is now referred to as the world's first portable, handheld calculator that was a device which could do addition multiplication, subtraction, and division in a venture that was nicknamed by the company "Cal Tech" [sources: Courier Mail, Texas Instruments[sources: Courier Mail, Texas instruments].
Utilizing "Cal Tech" technology, Canon invented the first handheld calculator for commercial use which was launched in the year 1970 with the cost of $400 [source: Texas Instruments]. The subsequent years turned into an up-and-down battle between makers to make calculators smaller, more accessible and less expensive. In 1972, British designer Sir Clive Sinclair introduced the Sinclair Executive, which is thought by many to be the first pocket calculator [sources: The Press, Western Daily Pressand Western Daily Press. Its weight was similar to cigarettes.
These continual advances within calculator technology were due to the development of the single chip microprocessor in the 1960s. Prior to this engineers constructed the computing "brains" of calculators (and computers) that comprised multiple chips or other components. A single-chip microprocessor can allow a full central processing unit (CPU) to be housed on a single silicon microchip. (To learn more about this type of technology, visit the article How Microprocessors Work.)
Intel Corp. created the first single-chip microprocessor that was commercially available -- Intel 4004 Intel 4004 -- in 1971 (sources: Behar, Intel]. It was able of performing basic arithmetic, 4 bits of information per second. However, Intel's cofounder, Gordon Moore, predicted that the capacity of one chip would increase by approximately 2 times per year. This concept is known as "Moore's Law," and so far it still holds for the moment. While calculators did get smaller, they also developed more sophisticated apps Source: Intel].
Today, in addition contemporary versions of the traditional pocket calculator sophisticated scientific and graphing calculators are in use by professionals and students such as engineers. Many use well-known computer languages and can be programmed in accordance with the needs of the user. In fact the time that Texas Instruments introduced its TI-92 model in 1995, it was described as"TI-92 "a calculator with the power of a computer lab" [source: Texas Instruments]. Many scientific and graphing calculators can perform specific functions like:
- The switch from the standard base-ten to other systems of number (hexadecimal counting, is it a basis-16-based system)
- Using scientific notation for calculating very large numbers
- By using trigonometric functions and logarithms directly
- Working with constants such pi and e can be done with a much higher degree of accuracy
- Utilizing complicated numbers such as fractions, formulas, and fractions
- Solving equations
- Examining statistics
- Making use of larger displays to work out graphs and formulas
Read on to the next section to learn details about circuit boards, solar cells, and other components that comprise a calculator.
Comments
Post a Comment