Did you know: Calculator is awesome!

by Milind Alvares
Friday June 26, 2009

Did you know: Calculator is awesome!

by Milind Alvares on June 26, 2009

calculator-img You’ve done this before. You require to do a complex calculation while working, so you fish out your iPhone, and fire up Convertbot (or one of the 327 calculator apps on the App Store) to the task. But did you know, that the OS X Calculator app is in fact one of the most powerful calculators you could get?

Calculator in Spotlight

Before we even open the app, remember that you can do basic calculations right within spotlight. Just hit Cmd+Space, and type in something like “5+54” or “37.6/21” to get instant answers. You can even write math like “(5+3)*16” to get smarter answers. But this is just quick baby stuff. The real power is in the calculator app.

spotlight-calculator

Basic, Scientific, or Developer

The basic calculator can be turned into a wide scientific calculator, as well as a special developer mode, which I’m pretty sure is optimised for 64bit code writing. I’m not sure how many developers actually use this (or how useful it is) since I’m no programmer myself, but it’s nice to see this all here. Cmd+1 through Cmd+3 switches between the three modes.

Unit Conversion

The real kicker in the Calculator app, is unit conversions. Up in the menubar lies a list for unit conversions. You just key in your initial number, and then select from temperature, speed, time. A sleeve folds out presenting you with the initial unit and the converted unit. Now I’ve been saving this for last, because I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it there. Calculator can convert currency, which is constantly updated with an internet database. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve visited x-rates or whatever to find out exchange rates, when it was right here in front of me. You can convert from a wide variety of exchange rates, which not as extensive as one of the internet databases, but is still very useful (Indian Rupee included!).

calculator-conversion

Bunch of Goodies

There’s an option to show the paper tape (vaguely reminds me of school days), as well as invoke Alex to speak out numbers as you punch them. Overall, I would never have expected to write a 400 word article on a simple app as the Calculator, but it’s awesome enough to mention in a post. If most of you knew about this, all I can say is, “Why wasn’t I told about this?!”.

[Wallpaper via Infinite Design]

Reader Comments

Roger June 26, 2009 at 8:35 pm: I to, did not know about the more advanced Calculator features. The converter features will help a lot as I was often going on-line for such information. Although there is a converter Widget I alway kill dashboard because the converter is the only widget I found useful in Dashboard. I view Dashboard as way to much overhead for that one useful application.
Sean June 26, 2009 at 9:39 pm seanmurph.com: Awesome article Milind, I just came across Smoking Apples the other day and am throughly enjoying both the content and design!

In relation to the theming with Maginfique feature in the latest magazine, I liked the look of the sheet in the last screenshot there. I felt compelled to ask, which theme are you using to provide that style?
2raj June 26, 2009 at 9:51 pm: I haven’t found a % key in any of the various modes in the calculator. Is it hidden somewhere?
SomeOne June 26, 2009 at 10:25 pm: @2raj: Not sure what you mean by “various modes”, since if you choose the “Scientific” view (Cmd-2), the “%” button - plus many more - is available.

Calculator really is one of the most under-appreciated apps which ships with Mac OS X. I’m glad to see articles like this which shine a spotlight (no pun intended on just how useful such applications are.
2raj June 27, 2009 at 12:41 am: Got it. Thanks.
Prunk June 27, 2009 at 2:13 am twitter.com/lprunk: I love Mac OS calculator, and as a developer, I’ve used a lot the binary and hexadecimal calculations, but I swear I’ve never seen the Convert menu and I’m always opening my dashboard to see the currency rates…..
This post changed my life! =) =)
Adi N. June 27, 2009 at 3:05 am twitter.com/AdiNachum: What’s the name of your theme in your mac? I really want it too! it’s amazing..!
Milind Alvares June 27, 2009 at 4:25 am soggysh.it: @Adi N.: It’s one of the default themes in the Magnifique theme browser. MobileM something. It is pretty darn good!
Mary June 27, 2009 at 5:14 am @fiberartisan: I can’t believe I didn’t even know there *was* a calculator app! Switched back to Mac after a very long lapse about three months ago. I kept cursing apple every time I needed one and had to use the dashboard version. Slap to the forehead.
Neil Anderson June 27, 2009 at 8:52 am cyclelogicpress.com: The calculator functions really add up.
Adi N. June 27, 2009 at 2:25 pm twitter.com/AdiNachum: @Milind Alvares: Thank you!, and how can i find your background in your mac? this is also very nice..!
Robin S June 27, 2009 at 8:11 pm webflunky.com: A couple of weeks ago, I was actually searching for a calculator app that showed the tape — and couldn’t find one! Little did I know that the Calculator could do that. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever looked to the top of my screen when the Calculator was open to see what options were there, almost like it wasn’t a “real” app. I’m sorry, little Calculator, I will never underestimate you again.
Viswakarma June 28, 2009 at 4:47 am: It would be nice if three buttons or two arrows are put on the right side of the “Calculator” two permit the switching from one mode to another.
Ben F June 28, 2009 at 5:42 am: Another goodie in Calculator: in the View menu there is a toggle for RPN.

Works in Basic, Scientifc, and Programmer modes!
Milind Alvares June 28, 2009 at 5:45 am soggysh.it: Can someone tell me what RPN is? I tried clicking it but nothing happened, so I ignored it.
tim June 28, 2009 at 7:09 pm: Calculator in spotlight is an enormous time saver. (google supports this too as a search result, but spotlight is much quicker and always open).

The spotlight equation parser knows more than simple math: try “log(pi)”

I wish it supported the conventional caret for powers “2^2”, but pow(2,2) is a work around.

For the person who asked “what is RPN?” - it stands for reverse polish notation, and works with a “stack” and needs no equals key: Instead of “2+2=”, you push the two operands onto the stack, then just provide an operator which will work on the elements stacked above it. So “2+2” becomes “2 2 +”. Think of it like “my numbers are 2 & 2”, “my request is addition” - hey presto.
Steve June 29, 2009 at 1:27 am: Viswakarma,

You can click on the green zoom-window button to change calculator modes.

Milind,

The calculator speaks with whichever voice you set in the Speech preferences, not just Alex.
John June 29, 2009 at 2:27 am: Adding to what was said above, RPN is also called infix notation. The regular algebra you learned in school is post fix notation. When you look at a complex expression with lots of nested parentheses it is easy to see the structure and groupings but tedious to do the calculation. With RPN it is hard to get an insight to the structure of the expression but very easy to do the arithmatic. With infix notation every time you come to a parenthesis you have to set your work aside and start a new problem. With RPN you either add a number to the stack, perform some math operator on the stack values or manipulate the stack.
John June 29, 2009 at 2:27 am: Adding to what was said above, RPN is also called infix notation. The regular algebra you learned in school is post fix notation. When you look at a complex expression with lots of nested parentheses it is easy to see the structure and groupings but tedious to do the calculation. With RPN it is hard to get an insight to the structure of the expression but very easy to do the arithmatic. With infix notation every time you come to a parenthesis you have to set your work aside and start a new problem. With RPN you either add a number to the stack, perform some math operator on the stack values or manipulate the stack.
Cam June 29, 2009 at 2:54 pm: I just realized that Calculator has RPN mode- very happy with that.