Calculator

Calculator Components

If you've read the first page, you'll know by this point that portable calculatorsneed microprocessors with a single chip to work. But how do you activate the microprocessor? It all starts with the information in the exterior of the device.

The majority of modern calculators have a durable plastic casing, with small holes in the front, which allow rubber to push through, as a television remote would. By pressing a button, you complete a circuit under the rubber, which sends electrical impulses across a circuit board beneath. These impulses travel through the microprocessor. It interprets the information and transmits an indication to the display screen of the calculator.

The displays in the early electronic calculators were constructed of LEDs, or light emitting diodes. Contemporary models that use less power use the liquid crystal display which is also known as LCD. Instead of producing light, LCDs move light molecules around to form patterns in the display. They aren't as dependent on electricity.

Early calculators also needed to be connected or use large battery power. In the late 1970s, solar cells technology had become cheap and effective enough to be utilized in consumer electronics. The solar cell generates electric current when the photons that are released by light are captured by semiconductors like silicon, in the cell. This knocks loose electrons, and the electric field inside the solar cell ensures that they are moving in the same direction, which creates and electric energy. (Something like an LCD calculator requires only the use of a low-level current. This is the reason why their solar cells are so tiny.) Since the 1980s most makers of simple calculators utilized technologies based on solar cells. More powerful scientific and graphing calculators However, they still rely on battery power.

In the next chapter We'll dive more deeply at binary codes and how the calculator actually completes its job.Hello Beghilos!

Perhaps you've utilized an in-pocket calculator at some point to spell words upside-down like 07734 ("hELLO"). Did you know that this language actually has its own name? It's called "BEGhILOS," after the most common letters you can make using a basic calculator display.

Advertisementhttps://fbe7c359baef375ed91a4619ee1bc775.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

How a Calculator Calculates

As you learned on previous pages, a majority of calculatorsdepend upon integrated circuits, commonly known as chips. These circuits employ transistors to add and subtract and also to carry out computations using logarithms to accomplish multiplication, division and more complicated operations such as using exponents and getting square roots. In essence, the more transistors an integrated circuit has in it, the more advanced the capabilities it has. A majority of standard pocket calculators contain identical or very similar, integrated circuits.

Like every electronic device, the chips inside the calculatorwork by making it easier to convert any data you input the calculator to an equivalent binary. binary numbers translate our numbers into the form of a base-two system in which we represent each number by either a 1 or a zero, which doubles each time we change by a digit. Through "turning on" each of the places -- in terms of placing a 1 in it -you can tell that this digit is part of our total number.

Microchips implement binary logic by turning transistors on and off , literally, with electricity. Thus, for instance, if you wanted to add 2 + 2 in a row, your calculator will make the individual "2" to binary (which looks like this 10) and after that, add them all together. By adding"1" to "ones" column (the two zeros) results in 0: The chip can discern that there is no number in the initial position. If it adds the numbers into the "tens" column, the chip receives 1+1. It determines that both are positive and -- since there are no 2's in binary notationmove the positive answer one left, making a total of 100 -that, in binary terms, is equal to 4 [source: Wright].

This sum is sent to the input/output chip in the integrated circuit. It applies the same logic to the display. Have you observed that the numbers on the screen of a calculator and alarm clock are comprised of segments? Each one of those parts of the numerals can be switched off or on using this identical binary logic. The processor then takes the number "100" and translates it by turning on specific segments of the displays to create the numeral 4.

Next, on the page we'll take a look at the impact of the calculator on the world and what we can expect to see them evolve in the future.The Difference Engine

An engineer of the Hessian army initially devised a precursor to the computer of today in 1786. The concept was for a machine that could print mathematical tables by calculating difference between the various equations. Because it worked continuously and in a controlled manner this type of "difference engines" are considered essential precursors to today's computer. The Swedish couple, father and son team, called the Scheutzes developed a working differing engine in 1853. It is still on display on display at Smithsonian Institute. Smithsonian Institute.