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 is the 1978 model with an LED display. From 1982 a LCD was used. The model available today in 2023 is solar-powered.

This example in our collection is boxed and comes with 17 activity cards.

Manufacturer: Texas Instruments
Date: 1978

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH36780. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

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