Two different keypads

[SeilerBird]

I was daydreaming the other day and I seemed to recall that there used to be two different keypads. One with 1-2-3 on top and one with 7-8-9 on the top. They seemed about evenly split in the real world so I did not think one would ever win out. Well one did win out, the 1-2-3 is now pretty much the winner. One of the things I love about the Internet is getting random questions answered. So I went searching and found a very interesting article explaining it all to me.

A brief history of the numeric keypad

There’s no logical reason why telephones and calculators use different numeric keypads. So why do we still follow the same convention?

uxdesign.cc

 

[Boat Bum]

not so brief...

 

[msw3113]

That's an interesting read. One of my first jobs entailed use of an electric adding machine. Speed was important so I learned the 7-8-9 top row layout.
Touch-tone telephone arrived bearing the 1-2-3 top row layout and it slowed me down, making me enter each digit carefully.
I always thought it was a deliberate move on Ma Bell's part.
Thanks, Tom.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Mom was a bookkeeper. It was cool to visit her office and see the piles of tape from the adding machine all over the place.

She was wicked fast with an adding machine.

 

[msw3113]

Among other talents, my wife is an accountant. Whenever there's a question about a balance her first reaction is "Run a tape."

 

[TheBar]

I assume that means calculators will soon have the 1-2-3 top row layout as well.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I assume that means calculators will soon have the 1-2-3 top row layout as well.

Somehow I doubt it...

 

[Kirk]

This was the first calculator that I learned to use in HD bookkeeping class.

 

[jymbee]

I was daydreaming the other day and I seemed to recall that there used to be two different keypads. One with 1-2-3 on top and one with 7-8-9 on the top.

I typically pick PIN numbers by keypad patterns, such as an X or checkmark for example. Can't remember exactly where I was that I entered my PIN number to get cash back and it didn't work. Tried multiple times until... you guessed it.

 

[Tulecreeper]

This was the first calculator that I learned to use in HD bookkeeping class.

This was the one I learned on in college.

 

[Olyteddy]

My early maths was mostly analog...

 

[Kirk]

My early math

I was introduced to the slide rule in HS and then in Navy Nuclear Power School we were all issued an engineering slide rule. This is the one that I used for my school and kept at my watch station on nuclear submarines in the 1960's. We used to do both common & natural log rhythms, vector addition, and a host of other math functions. When I last looked at it, all that I could remember how to do was multiply & divide.

Lawrence Engineering Service 10-B Mannheim Simplex Slide Rule​

My grandson went through Nuke school in 2018 (50 years after I left the Navy) and he was issued an engineering calculator.

 

[Tulecreeper]

I was introduced to the slide rule in HS and then in Navy Nuclear Power School we were all issued an engineering slide rule. This is the one that I used for my school and kept at my watch station on nuclear submarines in the 1960's. We used to do both common & natural log rhythms, vector addition, and a host of other math functions. When I last looked at it, all that I could remember how to do was multiply & divide.
View attachment 166014

Lawrence Engineering Service 10-B Mannheim Simplex Slide Rule​

My grandson went through Nuke school in 2018 (50 years after I left the Navy) and he was issued an engineering calculator.

That's funny. Before I cross-rated to MA, I was initially a Mineman and there was a lot of electronics involved in Mineman 'A' School. They wouldn't let us use a calculator, though. But it was also after the time of slide rules so there was copious amounts of scribbling and crumpled up notebook paper.

 

[Larry N.]

In HS and college the slide rule was our workhorse, along with logarithm tables and such. When I started flying, the E6B was a circular slide rule with mostly specialized scales on it (can still multiply and divide, etc). Around 1973 we got our first electronic calculator (pretty simple stuff and it was $70 some-odd dollars).

When our kids got in school they were only allowed (by us) to use calculators after their homework was done, mainly to check their work and to learn to use the new devices (by high school, it wasn't a big problem, so they had more freedom on that). Similar deal on "digital" readouts on watches -- learn analog first.

 

[jymbee]

My grandson went through Nuke school in 2018 (50 years after I left the Navy) and he was issued an engineering calculator.

Back in college I remember I was trying to decide between two Texas Instruments calculators. One model had basic math functions and other, more expensive model had the same plus trig functions and a few other features. The price difference was not insignificant.

I bought the less expensive model and at one point it got banged up somehow and as I no longer had much use for it I took it apart. What I found was that this lesser model had the exact same keys under the hood! You could push the dome switches on the "button part" to work all the trig and other functions but TI just didn't have cut outs for those.

 

[Ray-IN]

I was introduced to the slide rule in HS and then in Navy Nuclear Power School we were all issued an engineering slide rule. This is the one that I used for my school and kept at my watch station on nuclear submarines in the 1960's. We used to do both common & natural log rhythms, vector addition, and a host of other math functions. When I last looked at it, all that I could remember how to do was multiply & divide.
View attachment 166014

Lawrence Engineering Service 10-B Mannheim Simplex Slide Rule​

My grandson went through Nuke school in 2018 (50 years after I left the Navy) and he was issued an engineering calculator.

I still have my Post (Fredrick Post Co.) model 1447 from college. Showed it to a granddaughter and her question was "what is that?"
I also have my Sterling pocket-size slide rule from high school, with the instruction sheet.
Yes I was a nerd. pocket slide rule and plastic pocket protector.
The Post was made in Japan, the Sterling in the U.S.A.
EDIT: you can find the instructions on the web, I found the Post instructions online.