Functions
Modern scientific calculators generally have many more features than a standard four or five-function calculator, and the feature set differs between manufacturers and models; however, the defining features of a scientific calculator include:
- scientific notation
- floating point arithmetic
- logarithmic functions, using both base 10 and base e
- trigonometric functions (some including hyperbolic trigonometry)
- exponential functions and roots beyond the square root
- quick access to constants such as pi and e
In addition, high-end scientific calculators will include:
- hexadecimal, binary, and octal calculations, including basic Boolean math
- complex numbers
- fractions
- statistics and probability calculations
- programmability — see Programmable calculator
- equation solving
- calculus
- conversion of units
- physical constants
While most scientific models have traditionally used a single-line display similar to traditional pocket calculators, many of them have at the very least more digits (10 to 12), sometimes with extra digits for the floating point exponent. A few have multi-line displays, with some recent models from Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, Casio, Sharp, and Canon using dot matrix displays similar to those found on graphing calculators.
Read more about this topic: Scientific Calculator
Famous quotes containing the word functions:
“Mark the babe
Not long accustomed to this breathing world;
One that hath barely learned to shape a smile,
Though yet irrational of soul, to grasp
With tiny finger—to let fall a tear;
And, as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves,
To stretch his limbs, bemocking, as might seem,
The outward functions of intelligent man.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“Let us stop being afraid. Of our own thoughts, our own minds. Of madness, our own or others’. Stop being afraid of the mind itself, its astonishing functions and fandangos, its complications and simplifications, the wonderful operation of its machinery—more wonderful because it is not machinery at all or predictable.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“Those things which now most engage the attention of men, as politics and the daily routine, are, it is true, vital functions of human society, but should be unconsciously performed, like the corresponding functions of the physical body.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)