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:
“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)
“When Western people train the mind, the focus is generally on the left hemisphere of the cortex, which is the portion of the brain that is concerned with words and numbers. We enhance the logical, bounded, linear functions of the mind. In the East, exercises of this sort are for the purpose of getting in tune with the unconscious—to get rid of boundaries, not to create them.”
—Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)
“Adolescents, for all their self-involvement, are emerging from the self-centeredness of childhood. Their perception of other people has more depth. They are better equipped at appreciating others’ reasons for action, or the basis of others’ emotions. But this maturity functions in a piecemeal fashion. They show more understanding of their friends, but not of their teachers.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)