Ever wondered why you sometimes press the wrong buttons on a number pad? This probably happens more if you regularly use a calculator and I do know I’m in a profession where calculator use is in its highest. But, the numbers on a calculator pad go in different directions to the numbers on a phone or keyboard number pad.
Above is a phone number pad. 1,2,3 starts at the top, this places 9 bottom right. This layout is because of stupid people, sorry: Americans, who when unfamiliar with a keypad preferred the 1 in the top left position. This was in contradiction to all cash registers, calculators, and computer keypads until that time. So, Bell Labs went with it.
Above is a computer keypad with the numbers in the correct order. On a telephone the hash and asterisk keys were added because of forethought by the Bell engineers who thought phones could be used to link up computers.
And I’ve just learnt that the # key is called the pound symbol in north America. Which seems very strange at first but the # is just a lb done fancy. Sometimes you learn things every day and now I’m happy.