Scientific Calculator

This calculator evaluates expressions with standard mathematical precedence: parentheses first, then functions like sin, cos, tan, log and ln, then powers and roots, then multiplication and division, and finally addition and subtraction. So 2 + 3 × 4 equals 14, not 20 — multiplication binds tighter. Parentheses override everything: (2 + 3) × 4 = 20.

Trigonometric functions use radians by default; switch the DRG toggle to degrees if you are working with everyday angles. The constant buttons π (≈3.14159) and e (≈2.71828) insert precise values rather than rounded ones. Mixing modes is the classic error — sin(30) is −0.988 in radians but exactly 0.5 in degrees — so glance at the mode indicator before trusting any trig result.

Logarithms come in two flavors here: log is base-10 (log(1000) = 3) and ln is base-e (ln(e²) = 2). Powers use ^ with right-to-left chaining per conventional notation, so 2^3^2 means 2^(3^2) = 512, not 64. Roots are fractional powers: the cube root of 27 is 27^(1/3) = 3, entered with parentheses around the exponent to keep precedence correct.

Floating-point arithmetic has finite precision (~15–17 significant decimal digits), which produces artifacts like 0.1 + 0.2 = 0.30000000000000004. Results display rounded, but chaining many operations accumulates tiny errors — for money or engineering tolerances, round explicitly at the end and sanity-check magnitudes rather than trusting the last displayed digit.

Keyboard entry mirrors the keypad: digits, operators, parentheses and function names type directly, with Enter or = evaluating. Implicit multiplication works in most cases (2π, 3(4+1)), but explicit × removes ambiguity in complex expressions. AC clears everything while ⌫ deletes the last character — use ⌫ for typos, AC only for fresh starts, to avoid retyping long expressions.

Common workflows: percentages via division (18% of 86.50 = 86.50 × 18 ÷ 100), unit-free ratios, compound growth (1.07^10 ≈ 1.967), and quick statistics through repeated evaluation. For anything needing memory across steps, evaluate sub-expressions first and re-enter the rounded intermediate — chaining through the display beats one giant error-prone line.