Why is a computer numpad in a different order than a telephone number pad?

Question

Same goes with calculators etc. Why are they not in left to right, up to down, numerical order.

Answer 1

It was never by design; it just happened that way.

Old mechanical adding machines have been around for 100 years.  Since they lay flat, the lower digits are closest to you and and higher digits are further away.  Electronic calculators and, later, computer keyboards kept the design.

Touch tone phones, though, were a relatively new invention, and most people saw them as looking straight ahead at the phone on the wall, or looking directly down on them on a table.  No digits were particularly closer or further than the others.  So the telephone keypad emulated the usual reading pattern, left to right, top to bottom.

Of course, there are ALWAYS theories, which make for interesting reading.  But really, there was no plot.  It just happened.  For the interesting reading, though, here's one link.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpho...

Answer 2

Because they emulate the adding machine.

Answer 3

Yeah what they said