Question

Q: a) How do you think the calculator on your computer works ? b)Can you describe this procedure? c) Is the calculator a program? d)How do you think someone has programmed this application

Answer 1

Answer:Photo: My newer Casio Calculator, an fx-991ES, has a much larger "natural display" that can show entire equations and even perform calculus! The larger dark gray keys at the bottom are the numbers and the main "operators" (+, −, ×, ÷, = etc). The lighter gray keys above them carry out a whole range of scientific calculations with a single button click. The brown-colored square in the extreme top right is a solar cell that powers the machine along with a small button battery.

membrane to give you an idea of the scale. There's one rubber button directly beneath each key. Read more in our article about computer keyboards.

The rubber button pushes down making an electrical contact between two layers in the keyboard sensor underneath and the keyboard circuit detects this.

The processor chip figures out which key you have pressed.

A circuit in the processor chip activates the appropriate segments on the display corresponding to the number you've pressed.

If you press more numbers, the processor chip will show them up on the display as well—and it will keep doing this until you press one of the operations keys (such as +, −, ×, ÷) to make it do something different. Suppose you press the + key. The calculator will store the number you just entered in a small memory called a register. Then it will wipe the display and wait for you to enter another number. As you enter this second number, the processor chip will display it digit-by-digit as before and store it in another register. Finally, when you hit the = key, the calculator will add the contents of the two registers together and display the result. There's a little more to it than that—and I'll go into a few more details down below.

Animation showing how a calculator's seven segment display can show all the numbers 0-9

Artwork: A seven-segment display can show all the numbers from 0-9.