How does a calulator work?

Question

What are the componets of a calulator.? How are they made?

Answer 1

The simplest calculators have the following components:

Keyboard: A set of switches that close when depressed

Display: Usually an LCD screen

Battery: The source of power (some have solar panels)

Processor: The brain: This is a semiconductor chip that operates at the battery voltage, accepts input from the keyboard and sends signals to the LCD for display.

The central processor is a chip that is wired to operate based on "commands and data input" from the keyboard. The arithmetic functions are wired through an Arithmetic Logic Unit, or ALU. There is usually a clock that stimulates the chip to execute commands like multiply or divide that use add and subtract in an algorithm to compute the result.

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Answer 2

Mine is made of three strips of bamboo. The two outside strips are bolted together in a frame. The middle strip slides back and forth between the outer strips and a glass cursor slides along the strips. Logarithmic scales are inscribed on the strips allowing you to do multiplication, division, powers, roots, trigonometric functions, complex number calculations, solve quadratic equations, etc.

It looks like this on the front: http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/ted/p-1460versalogvariant1a.jpg

It looks like this on the back: http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/ted/p-1460versalogvariant1aback.jpg

Answer 3

with out getting too complex.. they have a numeric processor, a display of some sort,
circuitry to power the unit and are mostly assembled with the aid of robots, with little help from humans.

Answer 4

At an assembly line in japan..... you'll have to ask them... but I bet they have buttons with numbers on them...

Answer 5

Batteries or solar,and made in china.

Answer 6

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator