the.com/calculator
the pocket genius that made you better at everything except mental math.
means A device or program that performs arithmetic and other mathematical operations for you, from a simple four-function gadget to a graphing powerhouse.
from From Latin 'calculator,' meaning 'a reckoner' or 'accountant,' built on 'calculus' — literally a 'small pebble.' Romans counted using little stones laid out on a counting board, so to 'calculate' was, at heart, to push pebbles around. The same humble stone gives us the medical 'calculus' (a stony deposit) and the mathematical 'calculus' of Newton and Leibniz. The word for the modern machine took hold as mechanical and electronic reckoning devices spread.
- first device
- the abacus dates back over 4,000 years
- war machine
- early computers calculated artillery firing tables
- upside-down
- 77345 spells SHELL on seven-segment displays
- price drop
- 1970s models cost hundreds, now nearly free
- still required
- some math exams ban them entirely
pascaline — blaise pascal's mechanical calculator invented in 1642, performed addition and subtraction
stepped reckoner — gottfried leibniz's 1673 calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations
comptometer — odhner's 1875 key-driven calculator, first practical pinwheel calculator for widespread use