Calculator

Calculator Components

If you've read through the previous page, you'll be aware by now that handheld calculatorsneed single-chip microprocessors to perform their functions. But how do you activate the microprocessor? It all starts with the information in the exterior of the device.

A lot of modern calculators are constructed of a strong plastic casing, with simple openings in the front to allow rubber to penetrate, just like a television remote. By pressing a button you complete a circuit under the rubber. This sends electrical signals through a circuit board below. These impulses travel through the microprocessor that interprets the information and sends a readout to the calculator's display screen.

The displays of most early electronic calculators were constructed of LEDs, or lights-emitting diodes. Modern models that consume less power include the liquid crystal display also known as LCD. Instead of producing light LCDs move light molecules around to form patterns in the display. They don't require as much electricity.

The first calculators also had to be connected to the internet or use bulky batteries. In the latter part of the in the 70s the solar cell technology was cheap and efficient enough to be used in consumer electronic. A solar cell creates electric current when the photons that are released by light are captured by semiconductors, for instance silicon, inside the cell. The electrons are released, and the electric field of the solar cell makes them all traveling in the same direction, and thus creates electricity. (Something like an LCD calculator would require an extremely low level of current, which is the reason why their solar cells are so tiny.) In the 1980s, the majority of producers of basic calculators utilized technologies based on solar cells. These more powerful graphing and scientific calculators, however, still rely on battery power.

In the next section in the next section, we'll dig deeper into binary code and how the calculator actually completes its job.Hello, Beghilos!

Perhaps you've utilized an in-pocket calculator at one point or another to write upside-down words, for example 07734 ("hELLO"). But did you know the language actually has a name? It's known as "BEGhILOS," after the most frequent letters you can make using a basic calculator display.

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How a Calculator Calculates

As you've seen on the previous pages, the vast majority of calculatorsdepend of integrated circuits that are also known as chips. These circuits employ transistors to subtract and add, as well as to perform computations on logarithms in order to accomplish multiplication, division as well as more complicated tasks such as using exponents , and the calculation of square root. The more transistors an integrated circuit is equipped with, the more advanced the functions it can perform. Most standard pocket calculators feature identical, or very similar circuits.

Like all electronic devices, the chips in a calculatorwork through reduction of any information you supply it to its binary equivalent. Binary number translate our numbers into a base-two system, which means that we represent every numeral with either a 1 or a 0. This is doubled each time we change a digit. In "turning on" each of the positions -- in other words, placing an 1 in the digitwe can determine that that digit is part of our total number.

Microchips implement binary logic by turning transistors into and out of operation, literally, with electricity. So, for example that you want to add 2 and 2 then your calculator will change every "2" to binary (which appears like this 10) and after that, add them all together. When you add"1" to "ones" column (the two zeros) and you get 0: The chip can discern that there is no number at the top. If it adds the numbers within the "tens" column, the chip receives 1+1. It determines that both are positive, and -- since there are no 2's when using binary notationand moves the positive reply one higher, getting a sum of 100 -that is, in binary terms, is equal to 4. [Source: Wright].

The sum is then routed through the input/output chip of our integrated circuit. This circuit is able to apply the same algorithm to the display. Have you ever observed the way that the numbers on the display of a calculator or an alarm clock consist of segments? Each part of the numerals is activated or turned off by using this identical binary logic. This means that the processor takes that "100" and translates it by turning off or turning on certain parts of the displays for the creation of the number 4.

The next section will look at the calculator's impact on the world, and how we can expect to see them evolve into the future.The Difference Engine

An engineer working in the Hessian army first devised a predecessor to today's computer in 1786. The concept was for a machine that could print mathematical tables by calculating difference between the various equations. Because it worked quickly and efficiently this type of "difference engines" are considered crucial precursors to the modern computer. The Swedish father and son team, known as the Scheutzes built a functioning difference engine in 1853 that is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institute.