Welcome, calculator fanciers, to another Numberphile Unboxing.
My name is Matt Parker, and today we're opening the Little Professor.
What a calculator! This is the only calculator we've unboxed so far
which actually is exhibited in the Science Museum in London.
Not this particular model, but an earlier Little Professor is on display there.
This one here, you can see it's ages, uh, 6 to 11
Uh, it's got a picture of a professor staring at you
And just to really creep you out, there is one here just peeking over the top, uh, for bonus creepiness.
And on the back you can see it's got 8,000 problems.
Uh, I guess that's a quota. Once you've solved 8,000 problems on this calculator, it just, uh, falls apart.
And there are 5 levels of difficulty, I guess it ranks, uh, whatever you're doing
and gives you a, uh, level of how difficult your calculations are.
And as you can see, uh, for a Texas instrument calculator,
it's of course got every language under the sun listed out.
Look at all these different languages, it's absolutely amazing.
And the reason is, because it's from Texas
Texas is the state from the U.S., uh, that's most famous for being very multicultural.
People from all around the world are openly embraced,
which is why they have all these different languages on the back.
Okay, so let's, uh, let's pop this open and see what we're going to do.
And I will of course, as always, uh, use my handy scalpel there.
Here is the safest way to do it, uh, to avoid ruining your mint, uh, condition, uh, box.
Just get right in there, and give it a cut in the back
Oh oh oh, oh, okay, oh oh, that opens like that
I mean, that works just as well, I guess.
Okay, so in here we have, uh, the Little--
Now look at that!
It's as if he's staring it you through a frosted bathroom window.
That's what you would see if he was to suddenly appear outside the shower while you're in there.
*terrifying stare*
And then, uh, we have in here, uh, the Little Professor instruction booklet, which, uh--
Oh! A controversial hinges from the top!
First of all, here's all the safety.
"To ensure the complete safety of your child, please do not allow them to access the instruction manual."
Oh. Because, I mean, there's some dangerous knowledge in here,
and it's not safe for young, innocent, impressionable minds.
You don't want your young child exposed to other languages,
so for safety purposes, we'll leave that for now.
And then we also get the warranty.
Oh, okay! So, should, should you, uh, not get all 8000 problems, there is a warranty there.
Okay, so let's get the Little Professor out.
Okay! Someone's really put in 8, what could be + or /
Maybe that's the problem, guess what the symbol is!
Uh, and then 5
So I guess we... put an answer in?
So that would be, uh, 13. So 1, 3
And then-- Oh! Oh! Oh! It-- Okay! So I've got a star. Must mean I got it right.
7 + 7
Oh, I got it right! Ooh, I got another!
Okay! Controversially, it seems that, as opposed to me asking the calculator a question
and it giving me the answer, we're doing this the other way around for a while.
So the calculator here is giving the me the questions--
That would be a 9
--and then I'm giving it the answers, which makes me feel a bit--
4, I'm sure that's not / , so that's + 4
Whoah, look at that, a little party! Look at that, it's going off! Oh. Oh.
What do I do now? + 5 -
It seems, uh, the Little Professor asks you the questions, which-- and all you do is enter the answer.
Which obviously makes these calculation buttons on the side here entirely redundant.
This is the firework display, uh, should you wish to celebrate a victory.
Or a disclaimer, if you wish to add a disclaimer to any of your answers, you press that.
And this is the podium. So if you want to go straight to the podium at the end of the--
Oh no, it's the difficulty level! Sorry, I'm going up in steps, now we're talking.
Wow. So what's that? 715 + 73
Oh, that's, that's stupid, I mean, obviously--
There's-- There's none-- It doesn't even carry over any of the columns. Come on!
Uh, although, I've-- uh--
Yeah! Oh look, he ju-- he has a little fit!
900. Okay, ready for the little fit? Look at that. Ready?
Look at him, he's freaking out!
I mean, okay, we probably shouldn't give too many, uhh...
bursts of excitement to him because he's going to pass out.
I'm also churning through my 8,000, uh, problems
And, you know, I don't want to use them all up now, I want to save some for future generations.
So there you are. The Little Professor, a calculator that asks you the problems.
This is an anti-calculator. It's like an inverse calculator, so it does the opposite of calculating.
In fact, if you get a normal calculator and you collide it with this anti-calculator fast enough,
they annihilate and emit a photon.
Scores for the Little Professor solar anti-calculator:
The display is a 6, it's quite readable
Functionality: 0, because you can't do any calculations on it
Accuracy: 5, Ergonomics: 6, Cred: -7
You will lose cred points if you're seen using this in a maths department.
And durability:
*Background music*
I'm going to give durability a 7. It survived that crash quite well.
That's a grand total of 17, and an average score of 2.8 3 reoccurring.
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