![friden calculator circa 1960 friden calculator circa 1960](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/B9wAAOSw2-ZgS-Qg/s-l300.jpg)
By the 1990s they had become common in math classes in By the 1980s, calculator prices had reduced toa point where a basic calculator was affordable to most. They first became popular in the late 1960s as decreasing size and cost of electronics made possible devices for calculations, avoiding the use of scarce and expensive computer resources. Modern calculators are electrically powered (usually by battery and/orsolar cell) and vary from cheap, give-away, credit-card sized models to sturdy adding machine -like models with built-in printers. The 19th and early 20th centuries saw improvements to th mechnical e design, in parallel with analog computers the first digital electronic calculators were created in the 1960s, with pocket-sized devices becoming available in the 1970s. The first digital mechanical calculator was invented in 1623 and the first commercially successful device was produced in 1820. This semi-manual process of calculation was tedious and error-prone. In the past, mechanical clerical aids such as abaci, comptometers, Napier's bones, books of mathematical tables, slide rules, or mechanical adding machines were used for numeric work.
![friden calculator circa 1960 friden calculator circa 1960](https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/NNwAAOSw6xxhqAOt/s-l300.jpg)
The calculator has its history in mechanical devices such as theabacus and slide rule.
FRIDEN CALCULATOR CIRCA 1960 PORTABLE
Modern calculators are more portable than most computers, though most PDAs are comparable in size to handheld calculators. (July 2008)Ī newer graphing calculator A calculator is a small (often pocket-sized), usually inexpensive electronic device used to perform the basic operations of arithmetic. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. This article needs additional citations for verification. Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Calculator (disambiguation).