What are pocket calculators made of?
Pocket calculators take 10 things directly, among them printed circuit board, microchip, adhesive, epoxy, silicone and carbon black. Trace them back and you pass 68 made things on the way to 27 raw materials.
How pocket calculators are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
- Printed circuit boardat Glue the bare chip
- Microchipat Glue the bare chip
- Adhesiveat Glue the bare chip
- Epoxyat Drip on the epoxy blob
- Siliconeat Mold the rubber keypad
- Carbon blackat Mold the rubber keypad
- LCD screenat Link the display
- Solar cellat Add the power source
- ABS plasticat Snap the case together
- Inkat Snap the case together
From the ground: 27 raw materials
- Water through ink
- Silica sand through silicone
- Crude oil through carbon black
- Air through ABS plastic
- Copper ore through microchip, copper
- Limestone through printed circuit board, fiberglass
- Quartz through solar cell, silicon wafer
- Tin ore through microchip, tin
- Coal through solar cell, aluminum
- Gold ore through microchip, gold
- Rock salt through epoxy, caustic soda
- Timber through silicone, metallurgical silicon
- Natural gas through silicone, methanol
- Iron ore through ink, pigment
- Sulfur through ink, pigment
- Silver ore through solar cell, silver
- Lead ore through solar cell, silver
- Zinc ore through solar cell, silver
- Soybeans through ink, vegetable oil
- Rapeseed through ink, vegetable oil
- Clay through ink, vegetable oil
- Titanium ore through ink, titanium dioxide
- Corn through ink, ethanol
- Sugarcane through ink, ethanol
- Trona through printed circuit board, fiberglass, soda ash
- Bauxite through LCD screen, LED, gallium
- Sugar beet through ink, ethanol, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 58 things
Metals 10
Chemicals and fuels 29
Oxygen gasParaffin waxPhenolPropyleneAcetoneChlorineCaustic sodaMethanolHydrochloric acidPigmentNaphthaAmmoniaBenzeneEthyleneStyreneTitanium dioxideEthanolSulfuric acidSoda ashArgonPetroleum cokeQuicklimeNitric acidHydrogenCharcoalTolueneHexaneFormaldehydeCarbon dioxide
Plastics and fibers 6
Glass, stone and ceramics 1
Electronics 9
PhotoresistSilicon waferMetallurgical siliconIndium tin oxideLEDPolysiliconIndiumGalliumTrichlorosilane