Metropol

i was attempting to perform a rudimentary equation using a nearby calculator which was giving me erroneous results - the lcd panel was only showing the first 5 numbers, so i resorted to my mobile phone.

i instantly found the mobile phone much more difficult to use, and then, out of the blue, something i'd never noticed before.. the numbers on a calculator and mobile phone start in different places (1 top left on phone, 1 bottom left on calculator).

does anybody know why this is?

Maybe something to do with numbers on touchtone telephones doubling up as letters, i.e. A/B/C for 1 or 2? But then logic presents the question, why are calculators the other way round? The answer is I do not know. I regret entering this problem.

This isn't going to answer the question, but might provide a little background.

Calculators have been 789 at the top right back to the first mechanical adding machines in the nineteen forties, or possibly earlier.

I think, but can't be certain, that it was something to do with the numbers higher up the machine having to push the cogs round further, so it was easier to assemble like that.

Push buttons on telephones came along much later, in the US at first, as far as I know.

So I shall take the view that the adding machines set the standard, then the telephone people failed to follow it!

That is wisdom only Nick Harvey could dispense, and done so too with a superb new pic (glad to see the trademark rouge is included too!).

Oh my! The new Nick Harvey picture is SUPERB!

I will have to take a little spin down to Devizes very soon and say hello. It's only down the road.