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With Num Lock turned on, the numeric keypad on a desktop PC works like an adding machine keypad with numbers and symbols (such as *, /, and +) that represent mathematical operations.

Here is an example of a typical numeric keypad location on a desktop keyboard. To switch modes between them, IBM introduced the Num Lock key. To save room on the keyboard, IBM decided to make keys on the numeric keypad do double duty as both number keys and cursor keys. Num Lock, short for “number lock,” is a feature of PC keyboards dating back to the very first IBM PC in 1981.