Loi Dunk

Calculator Crush Tech Nostalgia + Mild Math

• Barbara & Teja Arboleda • Episode 78

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Before we had smartphones doing calculus in our pockets, we had calculators. In this episode, Barbara and Teja take a light-hearted stroll through the history of those button-filled brain boosters—from clunky desktop models to solar-powered sidekicks, and the golden era of the TI-83. Where does the abacus fit into all of this?

We marvel at how engineers helped Apollo 13 get back to Earth using slide rules, and explore how these humble devices became the unsung heroes of classrooms, labs, and kitchen drawers everywhere. Come on, you know you still have one (or two) somewhere.

Come for the retro tech, stay for the existential math flashbacks.

Find us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok @loidunk

#CalculatorHistory #RetroTech #TechNostalgia #Abacus #SlideRule #STEMHistory #MathThrowback #Edutainment #VintageTech #DidYouKnow #FunFact #GeekCulture

SPEAKER_01:

Just because we like talking about technology does not mean we always have to talk about new technology.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, oh, oh, technology. Like past technology, like tac technology we have to do. Past and present.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, there's different ways it's manifest for us now.

SPEAKER_00:

And technology has changed too.

SPEAKER_01:

Technology has changed.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But there was an explosion. It is. That's true.

SPEAKER_00:

You could use a hammer that's 400 years old.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And the head's been changed twice and the handle's been changed three times. It has been upgraded. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the old upgrades. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

It's the same with my dentures, but go on.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Sure. Yeah. Well, we're here to talk to you about calculators. I don't know how we came. You came up with this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. What was it about calculators?

SPEAKER_00:

I actually I don't remember. It had something to do with uh I was trying to calculate something, and I asked I asked Siri You know what you know to calculate something and it wasn't. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm showing the calculators as you go, as you tell the story about I remember this one. Then of course we have uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well no, what's oh that's interesting. What is that device, Barbara?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, you were telling your story. I was just illustrating your story as you went. You said you were calculating something.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and and I didn't know something very simple, and it's easy to distract you. It is shiny. Ah yeah, no, it is easy to distract to distract to distract me. Yeah. It is easy. Is that a calculator?

SPEAKER_01:

It is a calculator. And you know what about this one? Look, watch this.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh and then it changes to the city. Can you imagine doing that with your car? Like I'm driving this way now. Imagine what it can do sideways.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I remember my first calculator when I was in elementary school, maybe. It's back in Tokyo.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And it was this big, big thing, and it was, I think, light gray, and it had dark gray buttons, and it had a red one for for cancel or something like that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh it could only do like plus, minus, subtract, divide. I mean, um, whatever. Um I don't even know what they are.

SPEAKER_01:

No wonder I need add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, uh it was like my thing. And I was told I couldn't.

SPEAKER_01:

Was that that's not the order they go in when you're like doing uh an extensive mathematical problem.

SPEAKER_00:

No? How is what order is it supposed to go in?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't I don't remember. Wait, multiply, add no, it's like no multiply and divide first.

SPEAKER_00:

Add, subtract, multiply, divide.

SPEAKER_01:

I well, those are the four. I just don't know, like in algebra, which one comes first.

SPEAKER_00:

I I took algebra three times. Yeah, I barely passed the third time.

SPEAKER_01:

He probably just passed you to get rid of you.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, probably. It's like, oh my god, I was good in most classes, I was on a roll consistently, but math was always a challenge for me. I blame it on the teacher.

SPEAKER_01:

My dad used to sit with me at the dinner table after dinner, and he would try so hard. And I mean, I did okay. I did okay, but I also had this micrographia thing going on. Like he'd say, Okay, now let's let's write it down on a piece of paper, and I'd like little tiny, tiny, and he's like, this big piece of paper, he's like, Why don't you take up more of the paper here?

SPEAKER_00:

Because you knew that it would take you that long. Yeah, I know, I know, but the excessive amount of yeah to do a simple calculation. I I I I really I literally never got past algebra for the third time. I got a D, I think the third time.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's a good thing we have this plethora of devices.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Because if they're calculators, who needs to know how to do math? He just does it for you.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, but you have to do the math on the calculator correctly. You know what I mean? Like, you can do the basics, right? But like if you want to do fancy math on a calculator, you've got to know how to actually do it. You need to know what it means. Who needs to do fancy math? Our daughter. She's got that fancy graphing calculator. Yeah, I remember getting it for her first. It was the fanciest calculator I ever got. I had to get it for college.

SPEAKER_00:

And I don't even know how to use most of these things. Cosign. What is even cosign? Um, the only thing I know about cosine is like when we had to like sign for her first apartment, I had to cosign. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, well, um, I think it's a different thing.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a very different thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Anyway, so this so but I remember calculators were really expensive. My parents got a calculator. It was like this this big and it was like this thick.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And you had to like don't forget to put the calculator away.

SPEAKER_00:

Wasn't it gas, gas powered?

SPEAKER_01:

The generator. You had to have a generator outside. Right. Yeah, something like that. Something like that. But now, um, the Smithsonian Institution has some very interesting information about calculators.

SPEAKER_00:

Go for it.

SPEAKER_01:

So they have a whole page, electronic calculators, dash dash, handheld. So it they were first introduced, handheld calculators were first introduced into the United States in 1970 and 1971. That is so recent. Like in when you think about all of like the technology, like like hammers. That too. That that you would think that calculators would have been around longer than that, but apparently not.

SPEAKER_00:

And there maybe they made a mistake, maybe they used a wrong calculator to figure out when they started.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe, maybe, maybe they did. And and my dad started with slide rulers. Like when he and apparently, like, I don't know how they work. I I have no idea how a slide ruler works.

SPEAKER_00:

Why would you even slide?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't well, it had all these different like pieces and you would slide them back and forth. I have no idea, but my father had one and he knew how to use it. And then next thing you knew they had a calculator.

SPEAKER_00:

Your dad also knows how to use a sextant.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, true. Yeah, because you use a sextant. He could do it manually. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It's strange. I thought you were going somewhere else entirely with that. Um yeah, no, I mean it. That's why I thought it was kind of weird. My face kind of went at first for a moment. Yeah, that would have been weird.

SPEAKER_00:

Calculate that for a minute.

SPEAKER_01:

No, yeah. But but then, so then it wasn't too long before they got little, littler.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and this one is solar powered.

SPEAKER_01:

I remember buying Well, this is not, this one isn't solar powered. No, it is actually what there's no solar panel. This one is solar powered. Oh, this is solar power. Where's the solar panel?

SPEAKER_00:

I have not put a battery in this in 15 years.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I have not put a battery in this, and I bought it in 1986.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe it just doesn't use many batteries. Many? It doesn't use much battery power.

SPEAKER_01:

So, like I said, I had to get this for college. And so the on-off switch is erased, but I just know which one it is, and it still turns on. Still turns on.

SPEAKER_00:

So cool. Like, see? And this one still turns on too. Look at that. Right?

SPEAKER_01:

And then I can do things like seven times eight equals fifty-six.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's see if this one's correct. Seven times eight equals fifty-six.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so it's on this one. Hold on. Seven times eight equals fifty-six. Look at that. They're all the same.

SPEAKER_00:

And Google here. Hold on.

SPEAKER_01:

How about this one?

SPEAKER_00:

Seven times eight equals seven times eight. Fifty-six. So we know that it's right. We know that it's right. We know that all these calculators are right.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

This one, this one, this one, this one. All they all say this figure something out. We should know actually without having the top of our head. But I mean you could have done something much more complicated.

SPEAKER_01:

I could have. So now the calculators are desperate to be hold on.

SPEAKER_00:

Needed.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So this, okay, so the percent key. Okay, I'm gonna blend the percent key. I have this here. Okay. The key converts the number in the display to its decimal equivalent by dividing by 100. If you enter fourth 43.9 and press percent, then 0.439 is displayed. So if I want to do 56.8 percentage, and it rounded to 57.

SPEAKER_00:

See, it's rounding it, it's rounding it. What was it? What did you ask?

SPEAKER_01:

That's another feature. Did you ask again? No, rounding is another feature to two decimals. Yeah, but two decimal, fixed decimal key sequence.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. I have to ask you a question.

SPEAKER_01:

What?

SPEAKER_00:

Before handheld calculators, yeah, uh there were situations in which human beings had to critically calculate Apollo 13.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

As an example.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, they they had to calculate.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Do you remember what happened to Paul Apollo 13?

SPEAKER_01:

I think I have a slide ruler.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. No, you don't need to.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I do. So she's walking away. I'm walking away.

SPEAKER_00:

Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright, so anyway, Apollo 13 mission faced significant challenges, primarily due to an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks on the service module, causing a loss of power, oxygen, and water. And the incident forced the crew to abandon the lunar landing plans and focus on returning safely to Earth. The astronauts in mission control worked together to overcome these problems, including adapting the lunar module for extended support and improvising solutions for carbon dioxide removal. All the stuff they had to do without one of these things that to calculate it, all by using uh the the I couldn't find the slide ruler.

SPEAKER_01:

I know I haven't.

SPEAKER_00:

It probably slid off somewhere.

SPEAKER_01:

I have this. What is oh that's a calculator.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it certainly is.

SPEAKER_01:

How do you use it?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, you're from just because I if I don't even know what cosine is, how would I know how to use it?

SPEAKER_01:

It's just add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Oh my gosh! Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I really don't. You know, actually down the street from us in Tokyo was this couple that ran a little grocery store. And I remember going down there and buying some tofu and some milk and things like that. And the um the woman would sit there and she'd just and I'd give her some cash and then Abacus for beginners.

SPEAKER_01:

How do you use an abacus for beginners? Start by understanding the place Apollo 13.

SPEAKER_00:

But no, no, that's fine. Well, I like space. That's much more. They did not use an abacus on Apollo 13. Although they probably could have. They were using slide rules on the colour. Look at that slide. The moon is heading toward us, and gravity is pulling us in at a rate of at a rate of But they used slide rules. Oh, but but wait, there's no gravity, so whoa! They just whoa, they just kind of whoa! So actually would have made sense to have a calculator.

SPEAKER_01:

No, but they used slide rules. That's why I went off to try and find the slide rule because I know I have a slide rule.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And then I I should have thought of that before making this episode, and then I could have dug around and found it, but alas.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, this is what they had to calculate on Apollo 13. Oxygen loss, power loss, water shortage, limited resources, carbon dioxide buildup, right? And they had to improvise and communicate not in real time because radio, actually, well, close to real time, but not exactly what. Why did I just use this? Because those were not invented yet. They had to use one of these details to invent one of these. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. That they use older technology to create new technology. I find that fascinating.

SPEAKER_01:

And that it looks the same. You know what's funny? Like it, it's it's essentially the same user interface, right? Except this one, okay. This one is really interesting because I discovered that, okay, you there's this little picture that I never played with before, a picture of a calculator, and you touch it, basic, scientific, math notes, and convert. So, like I can do the scientific calculator, and next thing you know, yeah. It's got the like the cosine and sine and tangent, and it's got the tangent.

SPEAKER_00:

I realize I often go on a tangent. Cosine, I understand that, having to have sine of a for our daughter and sin. Original sin right there.

SPEAKER_01:

It tells you exactly oh, so you can calculate your original sin right here.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. What's rand? Rand is the past tense for the word run.

SPEAKER_01:

What? No, R-A-N-D.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I don't know what that is. Is this a random number generator? Hold on, wait, hold on. All clear. Wait, how do I get rid of these things? Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what they said too on Apollo 13.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, hold on. Uh it's all clear. It's all clear. After they look at it.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm gonna because they use their mind and I think it's a random number generator. And I never understood.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, in math.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Factorials is what they're called. And they have a little exclamation mark after them.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I've got some factorials on my shoulder.

SPEAKER_01:

Alternative factorials. I I never knew what that was. I just but this has it. It's got the little X with a with an exclamation mark after it. So what happens if I say, okay, I'm gonna go back to our favorite number, 56? Yeah, it it's a it's a thing. It's an actual thing.

SPEAKER_00:

An exclamation mark as a excuse me.

SPEAKER_01:

56 factori by five, and I got 3.554929390243172542.

SPEAKER_00:

It just continues. I'm gonna take a guess. 8764 1122. Exclamation mark, asterisk, amper stand.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's got an E75, which I think the E means it's like two to the 75th power. Okay. I wow. All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, calculators, I think, uh calculated as it's one. What is that?

SPEAKER_01:

Just US dollars to Euros. So now I can say uh 78 US dollars right now is 68.4 euros.

SPEAKER_00:

This is updated? I well, every time you update your phone, more or less.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe, I mean, well, maybe there's this thing called the internet.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't believe you. And I think this is connected to it. It's like a huge abacus just floating in the sky.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just just like that. Exactly. That's dusty.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that is. What did you oh wow?

SPEAKER_00:

It's just dust. It's been sitting there for, you know, since they used abacuses. You're right. Abacuses?

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Well, anyway.

SPEAKER_01:

So, yeah. Alright. So, no, okay, so neither of us know how to use an abacus.

SPEAKER_00:

No, and I I can look it up later, but I probably won't be really learning much.

SPEAKER_01:

So they had a calculator that cost uh$375. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh. Your parents had one that cost me.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, that was Hewlett-Packard.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, in uh, and then the HP35, scientific calculator. Add, subtract, multiply, divide, speak to me, trigonomet, trigon, trigonometric functions.

SPEAKER_00:

It triggers me.

SPEAKER_01:

Logarithms and exponents. In other words, it did the work of a slide rule and more. So then$375.

SPEAKER_00:

What happened to all those people who are making slide rulers? Or rule. Slide rule rulers.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, first.

SPEAKER_00:

What happened to them?

SPEAKER_01:

First, they got subsidies to help them survive for many years until they realized how many years, Barbara? That then that maybe subsidizing the slide rule industry wasn't quite the way to go.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. And then the bots came.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, yeah, the bots. Now we just yeah. Now we don't need to know anything, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. What's what is one important thing that you want to calculate today before we sign off or co-sign off?

SPEAKER_01:

Something to calculate.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. What do you want to calculate?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, well, I'll ask you another question. What's one thing that you would like calculators to convert, but don't that calculators will not be able to convert?

SPEAKER_01:

The amount of my love for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that is so sweet. Oh my gosh. I don't know how to top that. How do I top that? How do I top that? I don't think calculators would be able to calculate the weight of your soul.

SPEAKER_01:

People have tried.

SPEAKER_00:

I know.

SPEAKER_01:

And they're like, it's like 0.03 ounces. And I'm like, but that's gotta be somebody who's going down. Sure, yeah, because when you pass your soul has to be heavier than that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, this air coming, there's stuff coming out, uh carbon dioxide, you know, you exude things.

SPEAKER_01:

So I think that if, you know, it's gotta be like, you know, or well, which would be the weightier soul, actually. So then the heavier soul would be like Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Or if you're like James Brown, that would be like, you know, heavy.

SPEAKER_01:

What? Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Soul. Oh! And he's passed away, so you know James Brown.

SPEAKER_01:

Get on up! All right, that was clear as mud to me. But it wasn't your fault because I can see that made sense. I didn't think of soul music, and you did, and that was so I calculated it in my brain and all. Yes. So anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh looks like we have eight seconds. So what do we do? So maybe I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

That maybe next time we'll do a new technology. Excellent. Or maybe an even older technology.

SPEAKER_00:

Like pre abacus.

SPEAKER_01:

Pre abacus.

SPEAKER_00:

Pre abacusai. Psy.

SPEAKER_01:

Psy. Psy.