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| Thread ID: 88559 | 2008-03-31 22:56:00 | The location of numbers ... | SKT174 (1319) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 654704 | 2008-03-31 22:56:00 | Wonder why the numbers location on number pad are completely different than a phone? EFTPOS , Phone : 1 2 3 on top Calculators, NumPad : 1 2 3 on bottom :rolleyes: |
SKT174 (1319) | ||
| 654705 | 2008-03-31 23:21:00 | I wondered why too. But at least calcs and the numpad are the same. | Greg (193) | ||
| 654706 | 2008-03-31 23:27:00 | Yep, dunno why. Not that it's a problem, mind you. |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 654707 | 2008-04-01 00:59:00 | well that intrigued me too. this is all i could come up with. not sure how accurate it is... Independent evolution. The phones evolved from a dial where you pushed it so many notches and it fell back and send a fixed number of pulses down the line moving a stepper motor to change where the next wire was. It made sense to put the one first. When they went to a keypad it made sense to put the one first because it was first on the dial. The computer keypad came from adding machines so that people in the 70s could use the keypad just like adding machines. Adding machines evolved from old mechanical adding machines where you set the numbers with levers and then pulled a large handle down and towards you. Every position past the lever cleared advanced the gear one spot. 9 was therefore at the top so that as you passed everything. Since 9 was at the top for the old style adding machine it was kept at the top of the newer ones to keep things simple. All of these things evolved 100 odd years ago. either that or it's a secret government plot to confuse the masses.:horrified |
tingle (6539) | ||
| 654708 | 2008-04-01 01:08:00 | well that intrigued me too. this is all i could come up with. not sure how accurate it is... Independent evolution. The phones evolved from a dial where you pushed it so many notches and it fell back and send a fixed number of pulses down the line moving a stepper motor to change where the next wire was. It made sense to put the one first. When they went to a keypad it made sense to put the one first because it was first on the dial. The computer keypad came from adding machines so that people in the 70s could use the keypad just like adding machines. Adding machines evolved from old mechanical adding machines where you set the numbers with levers and then pulled a large handle down and towards you. Every position past the lever cleared advanced the gear one spot. 9 was therefore at the top so that as you passed everything. Since 9 was at the top for the old style adding machine it was kept at the top of the newer ones to keep things simple. All of these things evolved 100 odd years ago. either that or it's a secret government plot to confuse the masses.:horrified That's harder to understand than Chinese math. |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 654709 | 2008-04-01 01:20:00 | Phones were issued by Telecom. Naturally they did it backward. | R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 654710 | 2008-04-01 01:56:00 | well that intrigued me too. this is all i could come up with. not sure how accurate it is... Independent evolution. The phones evolved from a dial where you pushed it so many notches and it fell back and send a fixed number of pulses down the line moving a stepper motor to change where the next wire was. It made sense to put the one first. When they went to a keypad it made sense to put the one first because it was first on the dial. The computer keypad came from adding machines so that people in the 70s could use the keypad just like adding machines. Adding machines evolved from old mechanical adding machines where you set the numbers with levers and then pulled a large handle down and towards you. Every position past the lever cleared advanced the gear one spot. 9 was therefore at the top so that as you passed everything. Since 9 was at the top for the old style adding machine it was kept at the top of the newer ones to keep things simple. All of these things evolved 100 odd years ago. either that or it's a secret government plot to confuse the masses.:horrified While that may be true about NZ where the first number on the dial was zero, then one to nine, we were one of the few countries in the world that configured its dial in that fashion. Sweden, I think, was one of the others. All other countries had the first number zero, then nine to one. What that meant was that there was equipment in the overseas exchange in Airedale St, Auckland, that changed the pulses to be compatible with overseas, both inward and outward calls. The emergency number, in UK as we all know is 999, whereas here it is 111. The number one on our dial was in the same place as the number nine in UK (and elsewhere.) The reason the UK dialled 999 was to cut down on errors. Apparently it was more accurate when you turned the dial all the way, rather than a short distance (so we dialled 111.) Apart from that slight inaccuracy, the explanation sounds credible, I must say. Most intriguing. |
Roscoe (6288) | ||
| 654711 | 2008-04-01 03:08:00 | My phone and calculator are the same (123 at top), and the numpad is the odd one out. | pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 654712 | 2008-04-01 03:56:00 | ...The reason the UK dialled 999 was to cut down on errors. ... This is an Urban Legend - it is to do with allowing free calls to be made from the old A - B button public call boxes. |
decibel (11645) | ||
| 654713 | 2008-04-01 04:17:00 | This is an Urban Legend - it is to do with allowing free calls to be made from the old A - B button public call boxes. Never heard that one. Could you elaborate, please? Free calling from any phone box is simple. You simply tap out the reciprocal of ten for each number (in NZ). People have been doing that for hundreds of years - or for at least as long as there has been public phone boxes. |
Roscoe (6288) | ||
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