NUMBER PAD

[KannikaP]

Can anyone explain why the number pad on a PC keyboard has 1 2 3 at the bottom & 7 8 9 at the top. whereas on a phone it is the other way round.

Just something which I woke up thinking after my fingers get confused when playing Sudoku.

Edited January 12, 2021 by KannikaP

[Old Croc]

My phone has the numbers in a circle.

[Salerno]

8 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

My phone has the numbers in a circle.

[Old Croc]

I'm thinking of buying one of those new fangled cell phones

 

 

 

[Salerno]

7 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

I'm thinking of buying one of those new fangled cell phones

 

I kid you not, used to see a total knob thinking he was cool at a railway station with one of these:

 

 

(People used to drive to the station in question then catch the train for the last few stops into the CBD for work.)

 

[maxpower]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

Can anyone explain why the number pad on a PC keyboard has 1 2 3 at the bottom & 7 8 9 at the top.

 

Follows the layout for calculation or data input.
 

[ballpoint]

As per the post above, the number pad on a computer is based on the calculator layout, which itself is based on cash registers and adding machines going back to the 1910s.  The phone layout comes from a trial done by AT&T in the 1960s, when touch tone push button phones were invented.  A number of layouts, including the calculator one, were given to people to evaluate, and most preferred one which had the numbers going from left to right, top to bottom, which was the one adopted.  Mobile phones have continued this format, as have most other devices, other than calculators and cash registers, that require a numeric input - such as ATMs, security keypads and phone apps (except for calculator ones).

[Old Croc]

4 hours ago, Salerno said:

 

I kid you not, used to see a total knob thinking he was cool at a railway station with one of these:

 

 

(People used to drive to the station in question then catch the train for the last few stops into the CBD for work.)

 

 

I had a friend back in the 80s (?) who was just making his way in business and thought he needed to buy a (portable) car phone like the one above. He loved to big note himself by carrying it around when he left the car. I never heard it ring.

When home video cameras came out he had to have one. It was huge, needing to be slung on the shoulder like a news cameraman. It had an equally big battery which was slung over the other shoulder.

Needless to say, he also obtained the first home computer I ever saw - a Commodore 64.