mechanical digital calculator

calculator Use in education

Student using an calculator.

In most developed countries, students use calculators for schoolwork. There was initial resistance against the idea, primarily due to the fear that basic math skills could be affected. There's still disagreement over how important it is to work with your hands or "in the head," with some curricula restricting calculator usage until a certain degree of proficiency has been achieved, while others concentrate more on teaching estimation skills and problem-solving.

There are other reasons to be concerned, such as the possibility that a student could use the calculator in the wrong fashion but believe the answer because this was the answer provided to the calculator. Teachers attempt to stop this issue by encouraging the pupil to approximate the results manually, and then ensuring that it's in general agreement with what is the calculatedresult. It is also possible for students to enter the numbers -1 x -1 to get the correct answer, 1 and not be aware of the fundamentals involved. In this sense, the calculator is more of a crutch than a learning tool and can cause a slowdown for students in exam conditions as they try to check even the smallest simple result using the calculator.

Other concerns on the use

Errors aren't limited to schoolchildren. Anyone could trust the calculator's output without double-checking the magnitude of the result--i.e., where the decimal point is located. This issue was virtually absent in the age of slide rules and pencil-and-paper calculations. The task to determine the magnitudes of results had to be handled on the part of the person using the calculator.

Some fractions , such as 2/3 are not easy to display on a calculator display as they are usually rounded to 0.66666667. Additionally, certain fractions such as 0.14285714... could be difficult to recognize in decimal format. In fact this number is 1/7. Some of the more advanced scientific calculators are able to perform calculations in vulgar fractions but the procedure in reality is awkward.Basic calculator

Calculators vs. computing

One of the main differences between calculators and computers is that calculators are only numeric tools computer programs can use numbers to manipulate images, words, or soundsfor instance.

There is a huge demand for calculators is very price-sensitive. typically the user cares primarily about the most costly model with a certain feature set, but does not consider speed as a major factor (since speed is mostly limited by the speed at that the user is able to press the keys). Therefore, the designers of calculators aim to reduce their number of elements in the chip, and not the number of clock cycles required to run a program.

As an example, instead the use of a hardware multiplier an calculator could implement floating-point maths using code inside memory, and then compute trigonometric operations using the CORDIC algorithm, since CORDIC does not need floating-point. Due to similar reasons, bit serial logic designs are more popular in calculators while bit-parallel designs rule general-purpose computing: A bit-serial design reduces the complexity of the chip however it requires a lot more clock cycles.

Personal computers and digital assistants can perform general calculations in a variety ways:

• There are many programs available for calculations, ranging from basic calculator emulators, to more sophisticated calculators such as Microsoft Calculator, to advanced spreadsheet programs such as Excel and OpenOffice.org Calc.
• Computer algebra software such as Mathematica, Maple, or Matlab can perform complicated calculations.
• Client-side scripting may be used for calculation, e.g. by entering "javascript:alert(calculation written in Javascript)" in a web browser's address bar (as opposed to "http://website name"). These calculations are able to be embedded in a distinct Javascript in a separate HTML or Javascript HTML file too.
• Online calculators such as the calculator feature of the Google search engine, can carry out calculations on the server side.