How do the buttons on a phone work?

you push the numbers you need to call and the numbers pop up on the screen ( if you have a screen) and then hit send when you are done dailing the numbers you need to call and when you are done you hit the end button hoped that helped !!!!! :)

A2

Each button sends a unique sound tone down the line, which can be interpreted by the exchange, as belonging to a number and make the correct connection.

The unique tone is a combination of two sound frequencies. This system is called Dual Tone MultiFrequency (DTMF). The tones are chosen as not naturally occuring and so prevents the exchange being fooled by other sounds.

The buttons on a phone are arranged in a grid, three across and four down.

The three columns are resonsible for three tones and the four across, produce four more tones. Each button connects two tones. So 12 numbers (including * and #) can be sent using only seven individual tones, mixed 12 ways.