Telephone Keypad Order
Why are telephone keypads in numeric ascending order, left to right, and calculator keypads in descending order, right to left? Is there a logical explanation here? Wouldn’t it be easier on all of us, particularly the blind, if they were the same?
———- from Rico of Boulder, CO
Sure, it would be easier, but that wouldn’t be the American way. If this were China or the old Soviet Union, not only would calculator buttons all have the same configuration, but there would be only one model of calculator, the People’s Calculator Number One. It would housed in a gray metal case roughly the size of a telephone book and weigh at least ten pounds. In America, we have hundreds of different calculator choices, all different. Who knows, they might even give different results for the same data? That’s what we call “diversity,” and it’s all the rage nowadays.
Sure, it would be easier, but that wouldn’t be the American way. If this were China or the old Soviet Union, not only would calculator buttons all have the same configuration, but there would be only one model of calculator, the People’s Calculator Number One. It would housed in a gray metal case roughly the size of a telephone book and weigh at least ten pounds. In America, we have hundreds of different calculator choices, all different. Who knows, they might even give different results for the same data? That’s what we call “diversity,” and it’s all the rage nowadays. 