Nine Fascinating Calculator Facts For Kids To Nerd Out Over

The modern calculator was not created until about the 70s, and the usage of cell phones as calculators did not start until around the late 90s.

However, that doesn't rule out the existence of mathematical instruments prior to the 20th century; distinct computing equipment existed long before digital calculators or cell phones. The abacus, possibly invented in Sumeria, was the earliest instrument constructed for use in mathematical operations.

The abacus was a device with consecutive columns of beads or small stones that represented a single unit that could be employed for addition and subtraction. Other civilizations modified and improved the abacus; for instance, the Chinese added beads to wires within a bamboo frame to make it easier to use.

Sadly, the abacus remained ineffective for multiplication and division, prompting the development of a newer, more complex instrument.

Let's find out about this instrument in the remaining article! Read on for more facts about using a calculator for kids. Afterward, check out our wind vane facts and Wizard of Oz facts. 

When was the calculator invented?

Rabdology, or 'calculation with rods', was created in 1617, several years after the invention of the abacus. Napier detailed what became recognized as Napier's bones in his writings.

The 'bones' were thin rods engraved with multiplication tables. The user calculates a sum by altering the vertical placement of the rods while reading multiplication tables side to side. Although these gadgets substantially aided computations, they were not real 'calculators' but supported a person performing the mental calculation.

Pascaline, also known as the arithmetic machine, was the first calculator or computing machine to be mass-produced and widely utilized. The Pascaline was developed and built around 1642 and 1644 by the French mathematician and philosopher named Blaise Pascal.

Pascal devised and built the first digital calculator in 1642, at the aged of 18, to assist his father with tiresome tax accounting. Pascal's father worked as a tax collector in Rouen's township. The instrument was known as Pascal's calculator, the Pascaline, or the Arithmetique.

Interesting Calculator Facts

The Pascal calculator, created by French inventor turned mathematician Blaise Pascal, was praised for accomplishing hitherto inconceivable mathematical computations. However, these were challenging to make, and only a handful were ever built.

The mechanical calculator, designed by Thomas de Colmar in the mid-nineteenth century, was simpler to manufacture but was huge and bulky and not at all like the pocket calculators people recognize today. Pocket calculators are very handy.

Burroughs Adding Machine Company was founded in 1886 by William Seward Burroughs, who designed and copyrighted the first practical combining and listing device in St Louis, Missouri. From 1878-1887, the Arithmometer was the sole form of mechanical calculator sold globally, and it was continued to be in use until World War I.

The very first handheld electronic calculator was invented in 1967 by a team at Texas Instruments.

Actually, Curt Herzstark, based on a concept he designed in 1938, produced the first portable mechanical calculator in 1945, long before the electronic calculator.

Curta calculators, which were fashioned like sturdy pepper grinders, were mass-produced in enormous quantities until 1970 when a Japanese firm introduced the first digitized pocket calculator or mini calculator, whereupon demand for the ancient gadget waned.

Manufacturers in the United States, like Texas Instruments, borrowed the Japanese device's layout and improved it, resulting in the graphing calculators that we recognize today.

The Factorial Calculator

A factorial function is one that multiplies any number by each number under it. The function is applied to determine the number of ways' n' items may be organized, amongst other factors.

Rather than doing a factorial one digit at a time, utilizing a factorial calculator to find the factorial 'n!' of an integer 'n' is easier.

Type an integer with up to four digits into your calculator. For huge factorials, you will obtain a long integer solution as well as a scientific notation. To examine the lengthy integer solution, copy it and paste it into a different document.

The Scientific Calculator

Calculators are tools that students utilize to assist them in problem-solving. Calculators enable more students to solve issues and grasp the power and worth of mathematics in today's society by eliminating lengthy computations or algebraic operations, which frustrate many pupils.

The calculator has had a significant influence on the world by making computations faster and more precise. Calculators in school have made it easier for many pupils to understand and apply difficult calculations and ideas. A scientific calculator is a calculator meant to assist you in calculating issues in science, engineering and mathematics.

It has a lot more buttons than a typical calculator, which only allows users to do four fundamental mathematical operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Hewlett Packard created the world's first scientific calculator, the HP 35, a portable calculator. Scientific calculators removed the need to look up trigonometric formulas or logarithms within mathematical tables. All of these operations can be carried out using only one instrument.

A scientific calculator is used to answer complicated problems with greater scientific variables, not just in mathematics but also in physics, astronomy, and chemistry. Scientific calculators are really simple to use. They provide a lot of helpful features that make it easy to convert an issue from a textbook page into calculator input.

Engineering undergraduates and experts frequently use a scientific calculator to solve difficulties since standard calculators lack these functions and do not provide accurate and precise answers.

Most calculators, be they pocket calculators, simple calculators, or small calculators,  can be classified as computer machines themselves. Calculators are adding machines. Mobile devices are powered and developed with so much information that they seem nothing less than computer machines.

This machine is powered with the program directly needed to solve the required problems with the help of calculations. They calculate, display history, display examples, and more.

When they display an example, it is effortless to understand the steps of what is supposed to be done. When they display the history of what has been done already, the history can help to go back and review it without worrying about it getting lost.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our calculator facts, then why not take a look at our bigfoot facts or world bank facts?