Calculators come in many different types and sizes for various purposes. The abacus was one of the first mathematical devices used, followed by mechanical calculators, and then electronic calculators. Scientific, graphing, and financial calculators are more advanced and used in specific fields. Some calculators can be accessed online, such as pregnancy calculators and calorie calculators.
A calculator is a device that can be used to perform many different types of mathematical calculations, so there are many different types of calculators to handle different functions. The designs and sizes of calculators vary according to the purpose for which they are to be used. Some calculators are designed for specific purposes, such as different trades or businesses, while others can only be used for basic math calculations, such as addition and multiplication.
The abacus was one of the first mathematical devices to be used, and is simply a series of beads or stones that represent numbers. It wasn’t until 1623 that the first calculating machine was designed by Wilhelm Schickard, which was made to calculate astronomical tables. In 1645, Blaise Pascal designed his own calculator, called the Pascaline, which was used to add and subtract. Pascaline was designed to reduce the workload of performing time-consuming calculations by hand. The device was expensive and complicated, and calculating machines would not be ready for commercial use until the 19th century.
For the first half of the 20th century, mechanical calculators were the main type of calculator used. These devices used wrenches, cranks, gears, and other components primarily for adding and subtracting—multiplications and divisions were done with multiple additions or subtractions. The second half of the 20th century saw electronic technology advance from vacuum tubes to transistors, and this led to the creation of the wide range of portable calculators that are in use today. The most basic type of electronic calculator today is the pocket calculator, which in its simplest form can be solar powered and used for most standard math problems, the results of which are displayed as a row of numbers on a screen LEDs.
While remaining relatively small, scientific and graphing calculators are far more advanced than simpler calculators and are used primarily in the fields of science, mathematics, engineering, and physics. These machines can have an entire screen rather than just a row of numbers which can display multiple calculations at once. With graphing calculators, data can be displayed on the screen in the form of different types of graphs. Similarly, financial calculators are designed to perform calculations that are mostly needed in the world of finance and money. Examples of math that you can use a financial calculator for are interest rate conversions, amortization, and interest calculations on loans, savings, and leases.
Some types of calculators can be accessed through a computer, and they are designed to perform very specific functions. Most of these are available in different forms on the internet, one example of which is a pregnancy calculator. In this type, the user enters a small amount of information to find out a pregnant woman’s due date, among other key pregnancy information. Other online calculators can calculate the amount of calories a person should eat each day, a student’s estimated grade point average, or even a person’s age in dog years.
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