The computer on your desk

is a $2000 calculator.

Yet, some people still have

a hand calculator sitting next to it.

Calculator.app on the Macintosh

is a basic hand calculator.

It is also a scientific calculator with a “2nd” key for inverse trigonometry

functions.

Programmers like this calculator because it is a hexadecimal calculator

capable of generating binary code.

Hand calculator users would argue,

“I like my desk calculator because it has a paper tape."

So does Calculator.app!

What if you leave your desk?

Should you bring a hand calculator with you to the grocery store?

i always have a hand calculator with me.  

It’s called an iPhone.

Calculator app on the iPhone

is a basic calculator in the portrait mode.

This basic calculator is perfect for checking the restaurant bill,

calculating a tip or keeping a running total at the grocery store.

Turn the iPhone to landscape mode and Calculator becomes

a powerful scientific calculator.

A friend of mine was calculating a navigation track of his trip home

from World War II.

As an artillery gunner, he used sightings and trigonometry to calculate

the trajectory of artillery shells.

On the way home in a ship he logged various land sightings.

One of his sightings was of a lighthouse at land’s end in Britain.

After researching the height of the lighthouse, he used his iPhone calculator

in scientific mode to do the trig.

Needing an inverse function, he was thrilled to find the 2nd function key.

Why not use Siri?

Say, “Hey Siri, what is 1 plus 1?

Siri says, “Let me think about that…

the answer is 2."

i am famous for my computing laziness.

On my iMac i am sometimes too lazy to launch Calculator.app.

Instead, i type command-space to evoke Spotlight search function.

Then i can type in the mathematical expression and Spotlight will do

the calculation.

1+1 IS 2.

Sometimes i am at an unfamiliar computer… like a Windows machine.

i don’t have my iPhone with me (or am too lazy to take it out).

i don’t know where the calculator app is on the computer.

That’s OK.

i just open a browser and go to Google.

In the Google search box, i type in the mathematical expression.

Not only will Google give me the answer, but will provide an on-screen

calculator for further calculation.

Try searching Google for the word “calculator."

Google will display a working calculator along with 487,000,000

other solutions.

There are many other types of calculators online.

Currency, volume, weights & measurement converters are abundant & free.

Like so many other things, my old Texas Instruments hand calculator

from college has been replaced by my computer and the Internet.