Why do the calculator and the phone not share the same number placement/ pattern?

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The numbers on the phone pad start with 1 in the upper left corner, going down to 9 in the bottom right corner.

The numbers on a calculator start with 1 in the bottom left corn, going up to 9 in the top right corner.

For example, the top left number on a phone pad is 1. The top left number on a calculator is 7.

This difference makes it challenging to switch between the two. Why were they designed this way?

In: Engineering

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I long ago read (so don’t recall the source) that when phones first moved from rotary to the standard layout, people with a lot of experience on calculators were dialing too fast and digits were being lost/skipped. They switched the layout to slow people down just long enough for the technology to catch up

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