Editing Calculator (section)

{{Short description|Electronic device used for calculations}}
{{About|the electronic device|mechanical precursors to the modern calculator|Mechanical calculator|other uses}}
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=June 2022}}

[[File:Casio calculator JS-20WK in 201901 002.jpg|thumb|An electronic pocket calculator with a [[seven-segment display|seven-segment]] [[liquid-crystal display]] (LCD) that can perform arithmetic operations]]
[[File:Fx-991EX.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|A modern scientific calculator with an [[LCD]]]]

An '''electronic calculator''' is typically a portable [[Electronics|electronic]] device used to perform [[calculation]]s, ranging from basic [[arithmetic]] to complex [[mathematics]].

The first [[solid-state electronic]] calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized devices became available in the 1970s, especially after the [[Intel 4004]], the first [[microprocessor]], was developed by [[Intel]] for the Japanese calculator company [[Busicom]]. Modern electronic calculators vary from cheap, give-away, [[ISO/IEC 7810|credit-card-sized]] models to sturdy desktop models with built-in printers. They became popular in the mid-1970s as the incorporation of [[integrated circuit]]s reduced their size and cost. By the end of that decade, prices had dropped to the point where a basic calculator was affordable to most and they became common in schools.

In addition to general purpose calculators, there are those designed for specific markets. For example, there are [[scientific calculator]]s, which include [[trigonometric]] and [[statistical]] calculations. Some calculators even have the ability to do [[computer algebra]]. [[Graphing calculator]]s can be used to graph functions defined on the real line, or higher-dimensional [[Euclidean space]]. {{As of|2016}}, basic calculators cost little, but scientific and graphing models tend to cost more.{{sfnp|Houston|2023}}

Computer [[operating system]]s as far back as [[Ancient UNIX|early Unix]] have included interactive calculator [[Computer program|programs]] such as [[dc (computer program)|dc]] and [[hoc (programming language)|hoc]], and interactive [[BASIC]] could be used to do calculations on most 1970s and 1980s home computers. Calculator functions are included in most [[smartphone]]s, [[tablet computer|tablets]], and [[personal digital assistant]] (PDA) type devices. With the very wide availability of smartphones and the like, dedicated hardware calculators, while still widely used, are less common than they once were.  In 1986, calculators still represented an estimated 41% of the world's general-purpose hardware capacity to compute information. By 2007, this had diminished to less than 0.05%.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.1200970 |title=The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information |author1=Martin Hilbert |author2=Priscila López |date=1 April 2011 |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=332 |issue=6025 |pages=60–65 |pmid=21310967 |bibcode=2011Sci...332...60H |s2cid=206531385 |url-status=dead |url=http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/papers/others/2011/hilbert2011a.pdf |archive-date=2012-10-26 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121026235546/http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/papers/others/2011/hilbert2011a.pdf}}</ref>