mechanical digital calculator

calculator Use in education

Student using the calculator.

In most developed countries, students use calculators for schoolwork. There was some initial resistance to this idea due to worry that the fundamental arithmetic abilities would be affected. There's still disagreement over the importance of being able to work with your hands as well as "in the head," while some courses restrict calculator usage until a certain level of proficiency has been obtained, while others concentrate upon teaching estimation techniques and problem-solving.

There are also other issues to consider, for instance the possibility that a student could use the calculator in a way that is not correct but still believe that was the result given through the calculator. Teachers attempt to stop this by encouraging the student to approximate the result manually and ensuring it's close to what is the calculatedresult. Additionally, it is possible for the child to type 1 x 1 and then get the correct answerof 1, without realizing the principle involved. In this way the calculator becomes a crutch rather than a learning tool, and it may slow students in exam conditions as they try to check even the smallest minor of numbers on the calculator.

Other concerns about usage

The error isn't just limited to pupils in school. Anyone could blindly depend on the calculator's output without double-checking the significance of the result--i.e. what the decimal point is placed. This problem was all but impossible in the past of slide rules and pencil-and-paper calculations, when the task of determining the size of results had to be handled on the part of the person using the calculator.

Certain fractions, for example, 2/3, can be difficult to display on a calculator display since they are usually rounded to 0.66666667. Additionally, certain fractions such as 0.14285714... are likely to be difficult to discern in decimal format. In fact this number is 1/7. Certain more advanced scientific calculators can calculate in vulgar fractions but the procedure in reality is somewhat awkward.Basic calculator

Calculators vs. computing

One major difference between calculators and the majority of computers is the fact that calculators use only numbers Computers can utilize numbers to manipulate words, images or even sounds, like.

It is true that the market of calculators is extremely price-sensitive; generally, the consumer is concerned about the most costly model with a certain feature set, but does not pay attention to speed (since speed is primarily constrained by how fast the user is able to press the controls). Therefore, the designers of calculators attempt to minimize the number of logic elements in the chip, and not the number of clock cycles required to run a program.

For example, instead of an hardware multiplier, a calculator might implement floating point math using code stored in memory, and then compute trigonometric functions using the CORDIC algorithm as CORDIC does not require floating point. In the same way, bit-serial logic designs are more prevalent in calculators while bit-parallel designs rule general-purpose computers. A bit serial design is less complex for the chip however it requires a lot more clock cycles.

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

  • There are a variety of programs that can be used to perform calculations, ranging from simple calculator emulators, to scientific calculators such as Microsoft Calculator, to advanced spreadsheet software like Excel and OpenOffice.org Calc.
  • Computer algebra software such as Mathematica, Maple, or Matlab are capable of handling complex calculations.
  • Client-side scripting can be used to perform calculations, 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 separate Javascript or HTML file too.
  • Online calculators such as The calculator feature of the Google search engine are able to perform calculations on the server side.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Converter

What is partsPer-converter

The benefits of fruits in english