The Little Professor is a backwards calculator/educational toy designed by Texas Instruments for children aged five to nine. Instead of providing the answer to a mathematical expression entered by the user, it generates unsolved expressions and prompts the user for the answer.

When the user turns the Little Professor on and selects a difficulty level, an incomplete equation such as "3 x 6 =" appears on the LED screen. The user has three chances to enter the correct number. If the answer is incorrect, the screen displays "EEE". After the third wrong answer, the correct answer is displayed. If the answer supplied is correct, the Little Professor goes to the next equation. The Little Professor displays the number of correct first answers after each set of 10 problems. 

The Little Professor was first released in 1976, and is still made today. This example in our collection a later model with an LCD, which was used from 1982. The model available today in 2023 is solar-powered.

Our calculator was kindly donated by Peter May.

Manufacturer: TI
Date: 1985

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH15817. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

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