Scientific Calculator

Worked example

sqrt(2) + sin(30) in degree mode is approximately 1.914213562, because √2 ≈ 1.414213562 and sin(30°) = 0.5.

How it works

This calculator supports addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation (^), parentheses, and the functions sqrt, sin,cos, tan, ln (natural log), log10, andabs, plus the constants pi and e. This is a fixed, closed grammar, not a general symbolic solver: factorial and other functions not listed above are not currently supported.

Multiplication is never inferred: write 2*pi, not 2pi. Exponentiation is right-associative, and a leading minus sign applies after exponentiation (-2^2 is −4, the same convention used by most programming languages and maths textbooks; write (-2)^2 for 4 instead). Choose degrees or radians before calculating trigonometric functions. This cannot be changed silently by the calculator itself.

When every step can be worked out exactly (decimals, the four operations, whole number powers, square roots of perfect squares, and angles such as sin(30) in degrees), the result is exact and shown as a plain number, with its full digits or its fraction underneath if it is too long to show in full. When a step involves pi, e, most roots, logarithms or trigonometry, the result is worked out in floating point arithmetic and shown to 10 significant figures with the approximate sign, for examplesqrt(2) ≈ 1.414213562. Very large or very small results use scientific notation.