Calculator
How Calculators Work There may have been some time when the most complicated computations people needed to do could be executed using their fingers or toes. But these days, it's all but impossible for most people to imagine working on anything that involves numbersfrom math homework and tax return filings to tipping server in restaurants without the assistance of at least a basic pocket calculator. In fact, electronic calculators have become so widespread that it's hard to believe that they didn't become widely used until the middle of the 20 century. century. Before the advent that modern calculator there were other tools to compute. The abaci , for example, is one ancestor of the calculator. Likely it is of Babylonian origin The earliest abaci were believed to have been boards on which the location of counters represented the numerical value. But the current abacus -- that some people still use today throughout China, Japan and the Middle East -- works by transfe...