Adding Machine? Calculator? Dummy!

HP Scientific Calculator

We complain a lot about freelancers who pluck topics out of midair and "write" about them without proper background. Heck, that's what almost all our 1072 DotD awards to date have been for, when you come to it. But the internet is big, and people will always be greedy – so there are plenty more where those came from! Including, for what it's worth, "Difference Between Adding Machine & Calculator,"¹ which eHowian Keith Evans has up at Sciencing.com (shouldn't that be at Techwalla?).

Off the top of our collective head, the major differences are that 1) adding machines print out a record (though so do printing calculators) vs. an LED display, and 2) many calculators can perform more advanced operations than the typical adding machine. Evans sort of said number one, and poked briefly at number 2... but the way he said it? Owww, our aching heads!

Take, for instance,

"The most apparent difference between adding machines and calculators is that adding machines provide a printed receipt of each entry, while calculators simply display information on a screen."

A "receipt"? Did he just confuse an adding machine with a cash register? And then there's this bit of bogosity:

"Adding machines accept the numeric entry followed by the mathematical function indicator. In contrast, calculators accept the mathematical function followed by the number."

That last comes as a complete surprise to anyone not using an HP Scientific calculator (do they even make those any more?). Keith also informed us that

"Though adding machines perform basic mathematical functions, such as addition, subtraction and multiplication, some calculators can perform very advanced functions, like those used in calculus and trigonometry..."

We aren't certain that we'd consider trigonometry "very advanced," since high-school sophomores take the class. Plus, most calculators can't perform calculus (you need a graphic calculator for that), but plenty of them can perform business (interest rate, amortization, etc.), statistical (mean, median, mode), and other specialized calculations. So can some printing calculators, BTW. We especially liked this, though:

"While calculators enjoy widespread use in schools, universities and numerous professional applications, adding machines typically are used in banks, accounting firms and business-centric environments."

A "business-centric" environment? Reaching a little to meet that MWC, Keith? In point of fact, desktop keyboards and many laptops include a 10-key adding machine keyboard, or did Evans not notice that? For what it's worth, a section titled "considerations" definitely marks this as eHow content – from the mother lode of misinformation, source of more Dumbass of the Day awards than any other site...

¹ The original has been sent to the rewrite team by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/facts_6577047_difference-between-adding-machine-calculator.html

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