Pascal's calculator
Sign in to savethumb|A Pascaline signed by Pascal in 1652 thumb|Top view and overview of the entire mechanism. This version of Pascaline was for accounting.
Article
20 sectionsContents
- History
- Operation
- Inner mechanism
- Carry mechanism
- Operation
- 9's complement
- Resetting the machine
- Addition
- Subtraction
- Uses
- Production
- Limits to distribution and controversies
- Intellectual property
- Social context of intellectual collaboration with craftsmen
- Achievements
- Competing designs
- See also
- Notes
- Sources
- External links
thumb|A Pascaline signed by Pascal in 1652 thumb|Top view and overview of the entire mechanism. This version of Pascaline was for accounting.
The Pascaline (also known as the arithmetic machine or '''Pascal's calculator''') is a mechanical calculator invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642. Pascal was led to develop a calculator by the laborious arithmetical calculations required by his father's work as the supervisor of taxes in Rouen, France. He designed the machine to add and subtract two numbers and to perform multiplication and division through repeated addition or subtraction. It used a stylus to preform caculations.