Free desktop scientific calculator from Yahoo!
By Murray Bourne, 23 Dec 2006
UPDATE: Yahoo Widgets are no more, unfortunately, so these tools are no longer available.
I rarely use a (physical) calculator these days. Most of the time I use Scientific Notebook when doing any mathematics problem solving because I usually want to graph my result and/or save what I have done for publication on Interactive Mathematics.
If you have need for a calculator, and a computer-based one will suffice, then you could try the Yahoo widget called CalcMatic.
You first have to download the Yahoo Widget Engine which gives you access to many (mostly cool) widgets that sit on your desktop, something like:
Then go to the CalcMatic page and download it (it's very small). It looks like this:
This calculator is Javascript-based (like all the Yahoo widgets), so you should expect some mathematical anomalies at times. (See some examples in the discussion on the download page). Computers have trouble handling the conversion from base 10 (our ordinary number system) to base 8 and base 16 (used by computers, an extension of the binary system of 0s and 1s) and then back again. But on the whole, CalcMatic is not bad for a free calculator.
See the 5 Comments below.
21 Jul 2007 at 1:58 pm [Comment permalink]
Good calculator.... do you have any information or links to information that would explain how to use a scientific calculator for beginners in basic algebra?
22 Jul 2007 at 12:44 pm [Comment permalink]
There seems to be a lack of such information, Marilyn. I'll keep looking for you and if I don't find any, heck, I'll write some!
27 May 2011 at 1:29 am [Comment permalink]
Web-based scientific calculators are more convenient than carrying around a clumsy electronic calculator.
16 Sep 2017 at 8:30 pm [Comment permalink]
It's no longer available but I need a desktop scientific calculator. Do you have any recommendation?
17 Sep 2017 at 8:24 am [Comment permalink]
@Steven: Google's calculator and Desmos' one are both pretty good.