They can do everything from plot complex equations to even play games like Doom (if you have enough rotting potatoes) but the handheld calculator started out as a very simple device capable of ...

WASHINGTON –- In 1965, the consumer electronics revolution that would result in PCs, iPods, smart phones and myriad other electronic devices was still years off. And the predecessors of the integrated ...

Blaise Pascal was a mathematician, a scientist, a philosopher, a Christian writer and the son of a tax collector in 17th century France. The family business involved a lot of tedious arithmetic, so ...

It was the fall of 1965 and Jack Kilby and Patrick Haggerty of Texas Instruments sat on a flight as Haggerty explained his idea for a calculator that could fit in the palm of a hand. This was a huge ...

Blaise Pascal is known for a number of things, but we remember him best for the Pascaline, an early mechanical calculator. [Chris Staecker] got a chance to take a close look at one, which is quite a ...

Form is temporary, function is permanent. The most important inventions are the ones that relate to the human condition, and they crop up over and over again. Below, Houston shares five key insights ...