eli5: How does an electronic calculator work?

Question

Does it “use” the most efficient approach when solving equations? For example I know a technique for solving larger multiplication or addition problems is to break the numbers up so you’re working with smaller sums. Ex: 60 X 4

60 X 2 = 120

120 X 2 = 240

Not to say that’s the most efficient. But what I’m wondering is if the calculator goes through some process (that’s the best process) of its own.

In: 4

Answer 1

you are not completely off, except that they break numbers into decimal digits rather than splitting a single digit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_multiplier#Binary_long_multiplication

Also, in a modern hand calculator, speed or efficiency is not really that important, since taking 0.02 second to produce a result is no different to user than 0.01 second. Speed does become important in videogame rendering and bitcoin mining, since there are billions of computations to be made, so people continue to refine the algorithms.

Answer 2

you are not completely off, except that they break numbers into decimal digits rather than splitting a single digit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_multiplier#Binary_long_multiplication

Also, in a modern hand calculator, speed or efficiency is not really that important, since taking 0.02 second to produce a result is no different to user than 0.01 second. Speed does become important in videogame rendering and bitcoin mining, since there are billions of computations to be made, so people continue to refine the algorithms.