Ask HN: Do you use a physical calculator in your day job, and why?

I'm usually next to a computer when I need those sorts of results. The calculator keyboard button is mapped to a wrapper around a python repl with a bunch of tools pre-imported, and that's generally faster and easier than a calculator would have been.

In the field though, phone calculators are still kind of bad. They're a nice blend of being clunky to do anything fancy while simultaneously not supporting almost any features. If anyone has any recommendations for better apps I'm all ears, but if I were doing stuff away from my desk more often I'd want a real calculator.

qwezxcrty · 4 years ago

You can try emulators of some physical calculators on the phone. Most of the calculators they are emulating are quite polished to allow you do the kind of advanced math easily. My personal choice: HP Prime. Emu48 also works nicely.

cupofpython · 4 years ago

for mobile, i find it easier to have 2 calculators. One bare bones for "i just need to add a bunch of numbers" and one for "i need to use parenthesis and division"

for the latter i use maple calculator on android

I_complete_me · 4 years ago

HiPER Calc Pro on Android meets all my needs and I can recommend it.

On-screen and phone calculators seem hell-bent on replicating all the worst aspects of the absolute worst physical calculators on the market. Why would anyone want to use that?

I could of course get a more advanced calculator app, or use Maxima, but I already own a decent bitmap display calculator with scrollable history that I used in school, so using that is simply the path of least resistance.

orev · 4 years ago

One of my favorites is SpeQ Mathematics (Windows) [1]. It’s free (not OSS) and doesn’t seem to be active anymore, but it still works great. It’s like a scratchpad that can calculate, without trying to emulate a physical device.

[1] https://speqmath.com/

Tabular-Iceberg · 4 years ago

Thanks for for the tip, but does it bring anything to the table that Maxima can’t already do?

Maxima can do things my physical calculator can’t do, like solving equations, at the expense of having to open or switch to it, as opposed to having it always ready on my desk.

But to warrant actually downloading, installing and learning a whole other application that application would need to have some pretty game-changing additional features over Maxima, and even if it does, my current needs I’m barely scratching the surface of what Maxima can do, so I would still have very little incentive to switch.

PopAlongKid · 4 years ago

Moffsoft Freecalc works great, especially since you can copy and paste the "tape" results.

http://www.moffsoft.com/

warmwaffles · 4 years ago

For linux I use http://www.speedcrunch.org it's fast and simple for most things I need.

donatj · 4 years ago

I use a TI-89 I’ve used since high school 20 years ago a couple times a week. Mostly to simplify equations or rewrite multi-variable equations to solve for a particular variable. I could do it by hand but why bother and why introduce human error. I’ve never found a tool that made that sort of symbolic math simpler. I have TI-92 but I find the larger form factor cumbersome and without benefit.

I use a TI-89 emulator on my phone as well… I just know my way around it and how to do everything I need to.

camtarn · 4 years ago

I recently got really fed up with Windows calculator and bought a scientific calculator. I do a lot of conversions to/from hex during tasks where I have a lot of windows onscreen, so the thought of having effectively an extra screen, a dedicated keyboard that didn't require me to change window focus, and better ergonomics was very appealing.

Honestly I'm not using it all that much, despite trying to train myself to use it every time I need to calculate something. The well-rehearsed muscle memory of 'win+R, calc, enter' is kinda hard to beat. And the ergonomics aren't as good as I'd hoped - converting to/from hex and entering hex numbers involves more use of shift and alpha-shift keys than I had expected.

abakker · 4 years ago

I don't know if this solves your issue, but google does this very effectively from search. just type, "[some number] in hex" it just does it very easily.

mikewarot · 4 years ago

When I was making gears, a pen and paper, and a $11 Casio science calculator were the main things I used to figure out angles, etc. It had a nice DMS (Degree Minute Second) conversion mode.

You write down your calculations and keep them with the work, as you're working on multiple jobs at the same time, and it helps keep things straight.

There's grease and oil everywhere, stuff tends to disappear or get forgotten, so a low budget knowledge base works best.

It's amazing how much stuff you can get done with such a cheap calculator.

2000UltraDeluxe · 4 years ago

I've got one lying on the desk, next to my pencil and notebook. It's generally faster and less distracting to grab the calculator and write a note by hand, than to it is to change focus, bring up a calculator, and then write something in a comment/text document.

lazyweb · 4 years ago

Not me, but in a previous job the interim office manager used a physical calculator to add up columns from an excel sheet she was working on with her computer. I gave her a quick intro into SUM & co. Unsurprisingly, those tasks took a lot less time after that!

hansvm · 4 years ago

lexa1979 · 4 years ago

Pharmaceutical laboratory here: my colleagues, lab technicians, almost all have a scientific calculator on their desk and they use it quite often. The reason is they know exactly how to use it and when they're filling their paper lab notebook, it's in easy reach and faster than put the notebook away, unlock the computer, learn how to use the computer, then get back to the notebook and write the result.