calculators

INTRODUCTION

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Electromechanical, mechanical electronic devices that do mathematical calculations automatically are referred to as calculators. Calculatorsperform functions that perform the fundamental arithmetic functions--addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Some can also do more complicated calculations, like normal and inverse trigonometric operations ( see trigonometry). There are few inventions that have had as profound an influence on our daily lives as the handheld, or pocket electronic calculator. These calculators are utilized to save time as well as to decrease the risk of making errors and are used wherever people deal frequently with numbers--in offices, stores, banks as well as in laboratories, schools and homes.

The early calculatorswere mechanical: they ran their calculations with machine components, like disks, gears, and drums. They were powered either by hand or later electricity. In the late 1950s, a lot machines such as these calculators were being replaced by electronic calculators, which contained integrated circuits--in certain cases, similar to the ones found in computers to do mathematical functions. In actuality, the high-end electronic calculators of today are specifically designed, or even special-purpose computers. They come with built-in instructions on how to use certain tasks.

As with other processing systems for data, calculators are of two types: digital and analog. Analog calculators are able to work with variable physical quantities--fluid flow or voltages, for example--and solve mathematical problems through the creation of a physical analogy to the issue. Slide rules, clocks, along with utility meters comprise examples that are analog calculators. Digital calculators include the devices most commonly thought of as calculators. They directly deal with the numbers or digits. They function by counting, listing or listing, comparing, and changing the arrangement of these digits. Common digital calculators include adding machines, cash registers, and handheld or desktop electronic calculators.

PRINCIPLES OF MECHANICAL CALCULATORS

The fundamental part of all mechanical calculators are a set numeral-adding wheels. For a mechanical calculator driven by keys (and in a majority of other) these wheels are visible through a series of tiny window on the side of the device. Each wheel has the numerals between 0 and 9 on its edge. Beneath each wheel is a column of keys with identical digits. Depressing the number 1 key in a column makes its numeral wheel one step, pressing the number 2 key will rotate the wheel 2 steps and so on. When the keys 1 and 2 are pressed in succession each time, the wheel is moved forward one step, and after that two more, and finally it will indicate the number 3. A column of numbers can be quickly added by typing the numbers in the keyboard and observing their sums on the screen. The locking mechanisms that connect the numeral wheels automatically allow for carryovers. Multiplication is accomplished by repeating addition; subtraction is done by an indirect method; and division is done by repeated subtraction.

PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRONIC CALCULATORS

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

The operation of electronic calculators are accomplished by integrated circuits, tiny arrays consisting of thousands, even millions of transistors. They contain permanent instructions for addition as well as subtraction, multiplication division as well as (in more sophisticated calculators) other functions. The numbers entered by the operator are briefly stored in addresses or places, in the memory known as random access (RAM) that has capacity for the numbers used and generated at any time through the computer. The numbers that are stored in these addresses are then processed by circuits that hold the instructions for mathematical operations.

HISTORY

The oldest tool for calculating is the abacus, which was used for many years. It's comprised of moving counters, which are either placed on a marked board or strung along wires. The first version of the slide rule often thought of as the first calculator to be successful in analog, was invented in 1620 from the English mathematician Edmund Gunter. The slide rule was initially employed to multiply and divide numbers by subtracting or adding their logarithms. Then it was possible to utilize slide rules to determine square roots as well as, in some instances, to calculate trigonometric functions and logarithms.

MECHANICAL CALCULATORS

Courtesy of IBM

The first digital mechanical calculator, which was the predecessor to the modern calculator was an arithmetic machine devised by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642 ( see Pascaline). In the 17th century, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz created a more sophisticated version of Pascal's machine. It employed a shaft with increasingly longer teeth welded to the shaft and a cogwheel that had 10 teeth. The edges of the cogwheel is shown on a dial. The cogwheel was marked with numbers 0-9. By placing the cogwheel a certain way along the shaft, and then turning the shaft, two numbers could be added. When multiplying two figures, the shaft was rotated several times. Subtraction was accomplished through turning the shaft backward and division took place with subtraction that was repeated.

In 1878 W.T. Odhner in 1878, invented the pin-wheel. When an amount was set in a machine equipped with this device, the corresponding number of pins would be raised by wheels on the main shaft. When the shaft was turned, the pins were locked with cogwheels, which turned their revolutions to give the result to the sum similar to how they did those on Leibniz's machines. Invention of the pin-wheel was what made it possible to construct simpler and more efficient machines.

The first commercially successful key-driven calculator, later called the Comptometer was invented by Dorr Eugene Felt in 1886. Key-driven calculators were operated quickly and were frequently employed in offices. In a particular type of key-driven calculator, called a key-set machine, the keypads for numbers were first depressed, or turned off. Then , a second action--turning the crank or launching a drive motor--transferred the number that was entered into the keyboard onto the wheels for numerals. The principle of key-set was employed for calculating machines that printed their results on paper tape since it was impossible to drive printers directly through the keys.

The first commercially successful Rotary calculator was created by Frank S. Baldwin and Jay R. Monroe in 1912. The first rotary calculators incorporated a rotary mechanism to transfer numbers that were set on the keyboard to the adding wheel unit. Because the rotary drive lends itself to high-speed repeating addition and subtraction, these machines could multiply and divide quickly as well as automatically.

The special-purpose calculators comprise the cash register. This was created in 1879 by James Ritty, a storekeeper who wanted to ensure the honesty of his clerks. The first bookkeeping machine--an adding-printing device was invented in 1891 with the help of William S. Burroughs, a bank clerk. Punch-card machinesoriginally employed to regulate the operation looms, were adapted to processing information early in 1880s. Herman Hollerith of the United States Bureau of the Census. They read information from cards where patterns of holes were interpreted as numbers and letters.

ELECTRONIC CALCULATORS

The advancements in electronics during the 1940s and 1950s helped make possible the invention of computers and the electronic calculator. Electronic desktop calculators that were first introduced in the 1960s, had the similar functions to mechanical rotary calculators however they had no moving components. The invention of small electronic devices that were solid-state brought about a series of electronic calculators with greater functions and quicker operation than their mechanical predecessors. Nowadays, most mechanical calculators are being replaced with electronic models.

The latest handheld electronic calculators can do not only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division but can handle square root, percentages, and squaring. These are all possible by pressing the appropriate key. activated. The data entered as well as the result are displayed on screens using the use of either light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

Special-purpose calculators are designed for use in engineering, business and other areas. Some of them are able to perform a series of work similar to the work of larger computers. Sophisticated electronic calculators can be programmed with complicated mathematical formulas. Certain models have interchangeable preprogrammed software modules capable of 5 or more program steps, but the required data needs to be entered manually. There are many calculators that have a built-in printer, or an optional one as well as some that can graph mathematical equations. A lot of calculators come with basic computer games that are played directly on the calculator's screen. In fact, the distinction between calculators, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and portable computers has been blurred since all of these devices are now primarily powered by microprocessors.

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