Throwback to Your School Days?
Do you remember the first time you used a physical calculator? Some of you may remember using an adding machine with a handle and paper tape roll.
Do you remember the first time you discovered (or were shown) that some answers looked like words when you rotated the gadget 180 degrees?
How many different words do you think you can spell on a standard calculator? Someone has...er...calculated that there are 1435 of them! One of my favorites is a word that wasn't even a word yet back in the day. Try 379009.
To celebrate Use a Calculator to Spell Words Day, you might have to dig a little to even find a physical calculator. If you can't find one, there are some online that will suffice, but that's not nearly as much fun.
You probably have a calculator on your phone, but the font it uses probably doesn't spell very well and you likely can't spin it around to read the words. Technology these days!
I remember a small book or pamphlet (maybe even one that came with a calculator?) that gave math problems to perform on the calculator to get the desired word result. You didn't just type in the "letters" of the word in reverse order and then flip the machine around.
It would be interesting to introduce some young person who has never seen or used a physical calculator to this "word game" today. See if you can find someone to share this with.