Calculator

Calculator Components

If you've read the first page, you know by right now that handheld calculatorsneed single-chip microprocessors to work. But how do you activate the microprocessor? All it takes is what's in the exterior of the device.

Many modern calculators have a durable plastic casing with small openings on the front, which allow the rubber to be pushed through just like a television remote. By pressing a button you complete a circuit underneath the rubber, which sends electrical impulses through a circuit board beneath. Those impulses are routed through the microprocessor, which processes the information and sends an output to the display screen of the calculator.

The displays of the first electronic calculators were comprised of LEDs, also known as lighting emitting diodes. Newer models that use less power feature a the liquid crystal display or LCD. Instead of producing light, LCDs move light molecules around to create a pattern on the screen and do not require as much power.

Early calculators also needed to be hooked up or run on bulky batteries. In the late 1970s, solar cell technology was becoming affordable and efficient enough for use in consumer electronic. Solar cells generate electricity when the light rays of sunshine are taken up by the semiconductor for instance silicon, inside the cell. This releases electrons and the electric field of the solar cell ensures that they are moving in the same direction, which creates electrical current. (Something similar to an LCD calculator could only require an extremely low level of current, which is the reason the solar cells are small.) In the 1980s, a majority of producers of simple calculators had embraced solar cell technology. Higher-powered graphing and scientific calculators nevertheless use battery power.

In the following section next section, we'll take a deeper look to binary programming and how the calculator actually does its job.Hello, Beghilos!

You may have used your pocket calculator at some point to spell words upside-down for example 07734 ("hELLO"). But did you realize that this particular language has a name? It's known as "BEGhILOS," after the most commonly used letters you can make with a simple calculator display.

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How a Calculator Calculates

As you've learned from previous pages, a majority of calculatorsdepend on integrated circuits generally referred to as chips. These circuits use transistors to add and subtract, as well as perform calculations on logarithms to complete division, multiplication as well as more complex calculations like using exponents or getting square roots. In essence, the more transistors a circuit's integrated circuit includes and the more advanced the functions it can perform. A majority of standard pocket calculators contain identical or very similar circuits.

Like every electronic device, the chips inside the calculatorwork by making it easier to convert any data you input it to its binary equivalent. Binary numbers are able to translate numbers into the form of a base-two system in which we represent each numeral with either a 1 or a 0and then double every time we move by a digit. By "turning on" each of the places -- in other words, by putting a 1 in it -you can tell that this digit is part of our total number.

Microchips make use of binary logic by switching transistors to turn off and on, with electricity. Thus, for instance when you need to add 2 + 2 and 2 + 2, your calculator will transform each "2" to binary (which is like this 10) and later add them up. The addition of the "ones" column (the two zeros) and you get zero: The processor can observe that there's nothing at the top. When it adds the digits to the "tens" column, the chip gets 1+1. It recognizes that both numbers are positive, and -because there aren't 2's in binary notationand moves the positive reply one number to the left, creating a sum of 100 -which is binary in terms and is equal to 4. [Source: Wright].

The sum of this is passed through the input/output chip of the integrated circuit. It applies the same algorithm to the display. Have you noticed the way the numbers on an alarm clock or calculator and alarm clock are composed of segmented lines? Each of these parts of the numbers is activated or turned off by using this identical binary logic. The processor then takes the number "100" and translates it by lighting up or turning on certain segments of the lines of the display to produce the number 4.

Next, on the page we'll take a look at the impact the calculator's influence has on the world and the ways we can anticipate to see them evolve over the future.The Difference Engine

An engineer of the Hessian army was the first to devise a precursor to the computer of today in 1786. The concept was for printing mathematical tables by calculating variations between different equations. Because it performed this process quickly and efficiently, these "difference engines" are considered crucial precursors to the modern computer. A Swedish couple, father and son group, the Scheutzes, built a working difference engine in 1853 that is on display within Smithsonian Institute. Smithsonian Institute.