Why are the numbers on a phone and calculator reversed??

yep its a thing to wonder one more thing y is there a tiny bulge or some dot always on the number 5 button of the phone keypads?

There are many theorys here, http://www.vcalc.net/Keyboard.htm

Well Patootie I really do not know why, but I have to agree with you that it must have been a Man that designed it and I guess it was done to confuse Women like us you know. Now it is not hard to confuse me in the first Place lol. But no I can not give you an answer to this one.

Until now, I had never noticed, so thank you for drawing my attention to it :o) After giving it some thought I have come up with a theory. With phones, you normally have one free hand, when dialling the number and as most of us use our index fingers, it is easier for hand eye co-ordination to do this in a forward/in order manner. With calculators, we tend to use one hand to hold it and to push the keys, most of us will use our thumbs, I guess this layout gives some ease of use. Overall I think a lot of how something is likely to be used determines the layout, or I could be completely wrong ............. lol

The reason I have been told is that when non-rotary phones became popular, the lines couldn't handle it if the numbers were dialled too fast. Since secretaries were using calculators all the time, they were very fast - too fast for these new touch phones. So they reversed the keys to slow them down until the technology had it's time to catch up.

Do you know what, i haven't ever noticed that they are different ways round before now!!! I guess i'm not very observant! I have a calculator in fromt of me and glanced at it on reading the title of this topic and it was like a light got switched on inside my head, lol! I think the way the numbers on a calculator are laid out are definately illogical, though there's probably a reason for it. I'd have thought it makes sense to start at 1 in the top left corner, like as if you were laying the numbers out on a page.

well its some years since I used a calculator as I never trusted them lol . I never knew that because at that time I did not type lol xx

yah its always creates problems.. but yaar its habit to call by ascending ordered numbers..

Very good observation! I have never wondered this in my whole life. LOL But the answer is the telephone is arranged in that order so the alphabet to each number will correspond in the correct number. When the telephone was first used peoples numbers were not just numbers they were call letters and numbers. The keypad has a different reason. Calculators were made in the beginning with tubes, Before 1964, calculators were either mechanical or electronic devices with heavy tubes. The key pads on the first calculators actually resembled old cash registers, with the left row of keys numbering 9 on top down to 0 on the bottom. The next row to the right had 90 on top and 10 on the bottom, the next row to the right had 900 on top, 100 on the bottom, and so on. All of the early calculators were ten rows high, and most were nine rows wide. From the beginning, hand-held calculators placed 7-8-9 on the top row, from left to right.