Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with calculator

Getting my OS X calculator back into the Dashboard

siskin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:58:43 -0800

In OS X Snow Leopard, my calculator has escaped from the Dashboard and is always on my screen, and always on top. How can I send it back to the Dashboard? It's definitely the Dashboard widget calculator, and not another calculator - it's the same orange design, and definitely not the normal OS X standalone calculator. But, rather than being in the Dashboard, it's on the normal screen! It's been like this for all of today, but not before. I can't remember if I had the calculator on the Dashboard before today, but it's not there now.

ps -A shows three DashboardClient processes running - when I kill them, they restart (but any number displayed in the calculator is reset to 0). The calculator comes back after a reboot, too.

It doesn't appear as an option to Force Quit; when I select it the menu bar remains on the last selected application; displaying and hiding Dashboard with F12 shows and hides my other widgets, but has no effect on the calculator; there's no obvious way of closing it.

How can I get rid of it?

Help me find an online surface area/volume calculator that uses 3.14 as an approximation for pi.

23skidoo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:34:17 -0800

I'm looking for an online surface area and volume calculator, where I plug in various measurements of a cylinder or sphere and it calculates the answer for me. But I want one that approximates pi as 3.14. No, you're not helping me to cheat. I'm answer checking middle school math materials. All the surface area and volume calculators I've found online use a much longer approximation of pi, and all the questions I'm working on specifically direct students to "use 3.14 for pi".

(Note: if your answer includes any variation on "It doesn't take that long to calculate the surface area or volume yourself", then you are an unhelpful person who isn't very good at reading.)

Help me design a simple nutrition calculator for a restaurant website.

einarorn — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:59:33 -0800

How do I create a simple nutrition calculator for a restaurant website? I'm working on a website for a restaurant chain. What we would like to do is allow the customer to choose the ingredients he gets (it's a burrito place) and then he will get the nutritional value, preferably updated instantly as he picks new items.

Preferably it would work similar to the calculator on this page (I tried to email them about asking if we could use it, but got no answer).

I imagine this could be done with simple JavaScript, but I don't have the knowledge to write it myself. Are there any standard scripts out there I could use?

Upcoming one-time/long term expense calculator?

furtive — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:36:47 -0800

How to calculate how much to set aside each paycheck for multiple upcoming one-time/long term expenses? I keep a list of upcoming one-time expenses and their dates, for example:

car insurance, $500, Sept 09
winter tires, $600, Nov 09
dentist, $300, Dec 09

I'd like to have a simple calculator that tells me how much I should be putting aside each paycheck (I get paid twice a month) so that as each date comes up I can just take that money out knowing that I'll still eventually have enough for the next payment. Bonus points if it can tell me how my deposits will vary as I work my way down the list. Extra bonus points it it can be done in Excel.

So, in the above example:
-my total expenses is $1400
-my dentist bill is split over 12 payments of $25
-my tires are split over 10 payments of $60
-my insurance is split over 6 payments of $84
-until the end of Sept I'd set aside $169 a paycheck
-then until the end of Nov I'd set aside $85 a paycheck
-then until the end of Dec I'd set aside $25 a paycheck, with the numbers changing as I add additional long term expenses.

Where in NYC can I buy an HP 12C Platinum calculator, today?

xiaolongbao — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:24:21 -0800

CFAfilter: Where in NYC to buy HP 12C Platinum, today? It's gotta be today. Need to start using it ASAP. It's just going to be a back-up for my BA II Plus Pro, but I want to program some functions as well. There must be some way it'll do the geo mean, I mean, really, TI, really? Sorry, anyone taking the CFA might be able to relate here, for the rest of you it's just crazy ol' me anyway.

I'm overnighting it via Amazon (could cancel that prior to preparing shipment if someone can [virtually] guarantee me I can get it at X store today sooooon =), but would like to have in hand today and will figure out returns later. I've done a search of Best Buy(no), CompUsa (no), B&H (no), Staples(no), not sure on J&R, any other suggestions, have I missed anything? I'll be callin' before I head out. I only want the Platinum.

So, Metafilter, start me on my quest for calculator. Where can I buy this computational beast in midtown, bklyn, queens -- maybe even jerz? Have bike, have raincoat, will travel. But there's still studying to be done, so it's a race against time :o)

Thanks in advance. And GL to anyone taking any level this Sat, June 6. *Fist pump*

Help me find a simple unit conversion tool for industrial use?

theclaw — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:59:31 -0800

A friend is working in an industrial plant and needs to frequently convert convert lbs to kgs. They currently use a calculator and divide by 2.2046, but find constantly punching in "xxxxx / 2.2046 =" tedious and error-prone. They'd like a reasonably-priced device (a calculator or PDA application) with reasonably sized buttons or a touch screen that would simplify this process. They'd like to have the answer displayed as digits were input (without needing to hit = or enter), as well as being able to clear the input amount without resetting the units to be converted. LB->KG is the only conversion that they currently need to do.

The process cannot be changed. They have access to a computer, but it is not convenient to use.

Something like an iPod Touch is probably too expensive (and at risk of theft) but if there is a specific conversion application for the iPod/iPhone that works well, that would be an interesting data point.

I've tried Googling for variations of "unit conversion calculator", but only web applications are returned.

How to test if a variable in a Bourne shell script is an integer?

InsaneRhino — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:26:15 -0800

I'm being tasked with creating a simple integer calculator, which I have effectively done, up to the point of it being a calculator, however, even after hours of searching I cannot get any scripts to work correctly. Here is my code so far:

-----------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
echo "Please enter your first number"
read a
echo "What operation would you like to perform? (+,-,/,x)"
read orp
echo "Please enter your second number"
read b
echo $op
if [ $opr = "+" ]
then
op=`expr $a + $b`
echo "$op"
elif [ $opr = "-" ]
then
op=`expr $a - $b`
echo "$op"
elif [ $opr = "/" ]
then
op=`expr $a / $b`
echo "$op"
elif [ $opr = "X" ]
then
op=`expr $a \* $b`
echo "$op"
fi
-----------------------------------------------

Thanks for any assistance!

Where is that wondrous BMR calculator?

Andrhia — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:48:35 -0800

Please find my super-comprehensive BMR calculator? A few years ago, I found a really terrific basal metabolic rate calculator. It took into account lots of stuff that the standard calculators don't: Beyond age, height, weight, gender, this thing considered whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding, how much time you spend at various activity levels, and even whether you're an amputee. As I recall, the web form had about three pages of questions before you got to your results.

Help, help! Where is this wondrous calculator? Does it even still exist?

Or did my elementary school teachers lie to me?

JDHarper — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:49:37 -0800

Which one is right, Google or Excel? I've discovered that Google's calculator and Excel give slightly different results when converting metric and English weights. For example, when I convert 1 gram to ounces in Excel, I get: 0.035273972 whereas Google gives me 0.035273962.

I just tried converting pounds to ounces in Excel. It's telling me that 1 pound contains 16.000002342941 ounces. Is that an error of some kind in Excel, or am I missing something?

I need help with this creation.

CollectiveMind — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:01:55 -0800

I have invented a calendar that I think is unique in design and function. Last year, I spent six months reviewing copyrights and patents (and applications) from the US Patent and Trademark Office and US Copyright Office office and didn't see or read anything that fits it. I've since filed for a patent and a copyright. I'm told I'll get one or the other since it is either art or a device, but not both.
I think its design is to the standard calendar as the Reverse Polish Notation Calculator is to the standard calculator. I mean, it's initially confusing, but once you get used to it, it's much more efficient. To me, this means it would only appeal to a niche market, but probably a strong and loyal niche market - engineers, actuaries, event planners, etc.

My main question is, how can I get it printed for distribution and in front of my niche? I frequent a lot of thrift stores, and last week, barely missed buying an HP Large Format Printer for under $100. The office supply stores and online printers, by contrast, charge about $8 per sq. foot for the kind of color it has. And because I think it must be at least wall poster size to be of practical use, that makes the cost of each one nearly $70. That seems to much forthe market to bear. Does anybody know how I can reproduce this and get it circulating (and among whom) in the market, either by finding a cheap, large format printer or a cheap means for digital or offset printing?

A simple number cruncher?

gorgor_balabala — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:25:57 -0800

Is there an online or otherwise calculator utility that can produce a multiplication column to the nearest integer if I need to (and I do need to) multiply a given integer (specifically, 8.57143) by all the integers from 1 to about 600, displayed in a list so that I don't have to multiply it each time? I may need to do other 600-deep columns with other decimally numbers, a few at most. I need to see the result, better yet print it. For even reasonably numerate folks, this is probably cake. But my brain has long since dealt with anything besides simple ratios, and I can't remember how this sort of thing is done.

If anyone's curious, it's so that I can split up a 24 fps film into a 168 bpm click track. Each beat is 1/2.8 second. 24 / 2.8 = 8.57143... And I think I need to use as many places on that as I can so as not to throw off the tempo later in the film. It's only a 3 1/2 minute-r, but that's almost 600 beats!

Please help me better understand repaying my student loans.

4ster — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:11:05 -0800

In 1997, I started making student loan payments, five months after graduating from graduate school. Shortly there after, in a sudden moment of sheer, blinding stupidity, I consolidated my loans, reducing my monthly payment and doubling the term of my loan. I do not want to make payments for 10 more years, however, I cannot figure out how to calculate the money I would save py doubling my payments this November. Arithmetic has never been one of my strengths. I've tried plugging numbers into various online loan calculators, but the numbers don't seem right.

So here goes (I don't know if this is enough information or not:

Monthly payment: $262.51
Original principal balance: $31,298.40
Capitalized interest: $0.00
Outstanding principal balance: $14,953.18
Accrued interest: $121.18
Total amount outstanding: $15,074.36
Interest rate is 8%

What started this all was making a double-payment of $520, and discovering that $449 went to principal, when only $139 of a $265 payment went to principal.

So could someone help me understand how much money we will save by doubling all our payments starting in November, and how to figure this out in the future? If your answer is how to better use an online calculator or just a mathematical formula for figuring this out, I'd appreciate.

Having this kind of information will be great inspiration to stick with it, especially in a couple of months when I'm posting questions like, "Does anyone know some good Ramen Noodle recipees?"

Thanks.

Math students, you are getting such a raw deal.

skryche — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:23:41 -0800

Why doesn't Moore's Law apply to graphing calculators? When I was a freshman in college (1994), my parents bought me a TI-85 graphing calculator (6Mhz, 32k RAM) for (I think) around $130. 14 years later, for about the same price, I can get a calculator with about 4 times the speed and 4 times the RAM.

Shouldn't today's calculator be vastly more powerful (or at least much cheaper) -- in line with advances in home computers?

Mystery Device: Telxon 718?

vanoakenfold — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:42:40 -0800

What exactly does a Telxon 718 do? It looks like a way-back calculator but only has plus, minus, and a few weird, presumably abbreviated, button markings. Any guesses as to what it does? Video within. Mystery Device - Telxon 718. I picked it up at a rummage sale for a dollar, and the owner had no earthly idea where it came from or what it was for, but offered a few guesses. What do you think?

Dear Apple: For the Last Damn Time, Not Everyone Has Always-On Internet.

lorimer — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:21:11 -0800

For the default Calculator app in Mac OS, how do I permanently disable the behavior that results in the "unable to update currency exchange rates" warning at startup? I recently ran Software Update on my Mac, so it's now running OS 10.4.11. This update came with a very unwelcome (to me) "improvement" in the basic system application Calculator. Calculator apparently now tries to connect to the internet every time it starts, in order to get currency conversion rates (!?). I am not online most of the time. This means any time I start Calculator, this obnoxious dialog box pops up telling me the app was "unable to update currency exchange rates."

Even if I use Little Snitch to tell Calculator it's never allowed to connect to the internet, this doesn't fix the problem that every time Calculator starts it will give me that stupid "unable to update" dialog box that I have to click OK on before I can even add two numbers together. To me, the point of Calculator is to start immediately and be dead simple.

Please tell me there's a way to disable this new feature. If there's not, what is a tiny, free, third party calculator app for Mac OS? (I can't believe I'd have to install a third party app for something as simple as a calculator, but I will if I have to. I don't need anything but the most basic functions.)

What Was That PocketPC Software?

benzo8 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 09:04:16 -0800

Help me track down a piece of Windows Mobile calculator software, the name of which my memory has totally failed to retain... A while ago, while looking at a friends Windows Mobile Pocket PC, I was very taken by a piece of mathematics / calculator software that he had installed. Now I have my new HTC Touch Cruise, I'd love to have this software for myself, but no matter how hard I try, or how arcanely I google, I can't find it!

It was, as I've said, a calculator. One of the things that really set it apart from others was that each equation or calculation you entered was stored back going back further up the screen, in such a way that you could: a) reference the answer from a previous calculation in your current one, and b) "run" through the calculations again from any point back up the stack to the end.

I also remember that there was a very fiddly little click in the right hand corner of each equation where you could turn on graphing for that equation (and a little graph icon with the colour of the plot would appear in that corner once it was on).

You could write scripts using this, and load and run them, enter equations in RPN or standard notation, etc. etc...

Does this ring bells with anyone? It's not MathU (Pro), PDACalc, HiCalc or MxCalc... So, what was it?

Shortcut to switching off a calculator.

Xere — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:47:52 -0800

I've found that I can switch off most calculators without an "Off" button, by simultaneously mashing buttons and pressing "On". (I usually hold down "5" and "6", then press "On".) Can someone explain to me why and how this is possible?

Jewelers and their ubiquitous calculator... why?

ab5000 — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:18:03 -0800

Why do jewelers always insist of giving prices read from a calculator screen and not from the price tag of the piece I'm looking at? Do they give different people different prices? Or is it a way of accounting for fluctuating prices of gold or gems from week to week?

Help Me Replace My Calculator

wittgenstein — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 09:33:39 -0800

Calculator-filter: My beloved casio fx-115s is dying after about 20 years of use. I need to replace it. Tell me what to get as a replacement. I am not interested in a graphing calculator; these are too bulky for me to carry around while teaching, and are frankly more powerful than I need. I just need a basic scientific calculator, say 25 bucks or less. What "cheap" calculator do you like best, and what features about it make you like it?

Mortgage spreadsheet help

winston — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:02:01 -0800

Looking for a mortgage calculator/spreadsheet (or help in creating a spreadsheet) that works for our situation. We have a (Canadian) variable rate mortgage (the mortgage rate changes as the bank's prime rate changes). But instead of having a variable payment (as would normally be the case), the payment is a fixed amount. The fixed amount is what the payment would be for a mortgage with an interest rate of X%, where X is 2.5 more than the interest rate on our mortgage when we started. So we've been making extra payments with every (biweekly) payment for a few years. Now that the actual interest rate has caught up to our payment amount, I'd like to figure out what benefit we've received from this arrangement (and what changes we should make)

The two main problems I've got with mortgage spreadsheets /calculators I've found online so far:
(1) They don't allow for interest rates to change mid-month,
(2) They make you enter the "regular" payment and the "extra" payment separately -- the number I have is the total payment, and the computer is supposed to be doing the mathy bits for me

I'm pretty good with spreadsheets (I've made one for my taxes that has a cell for every box I need to fill in on the forms and does all the calculations) but mortgage formulas are a little black-magicky to me. Maybe I'm making this more complicated than it is?

Cracked FlashCard Calculator LCD

jasmeet — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 01:37:46 -0800

I cracked my FlashCard Calculator LCD. Can I fix it? It was in my wallet, but I guess it didnt like the idea of being sat on all the time. Here's a pic.

I'd like to try and fix it, by getting a new LCD or something. The model number is LS-716H. Is this possible?

It's not sentimental or anything. The Inner Geek in me just wants to try and fix it.

Calculating mutual fund profits with pre-authorized contributions?

greatgefilte — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:03:30 -0800

Is there an easy way to figure how much profit one has made from a mutual fund portfolio where additional fixed contributions are made each month? I started an RRSP mutual fund account with my bank last year, and designated a certain amount of money to be taken out of my chequing account each month and used to buy more units of the funds. Although I can easily find out how much my current holdings are worth, is there some way to figure out how much profit the mutual funds have earned at any given point? It seems like it would take forever to do manually!

How much does a bubble mailer + 2 dvds + a case weigh?

anonymoose — Fri, 26 May 2006 00:22:22 -0800

PostOfficeAvoidanceFilter: Has anyone made a weight calculator (or just recorded weights of commonly mailed objects) such that I can figure out how much a double DVD case, 2 dvds, and a bubble mailer would typically weigh? I imagine the variance between different 6x9 bubble mailers is relatively small, and the variance between different brands of DVD cases also small. Surely there's a way for me to spend a great deal of time successfully avoiding a trip to the post office.

(No, I unfortunately do not yet own a kitchen scale)

Alternatively, if anyone frequently sells DVDs on ebay and knows how heavy this thing is, that would do in a pinch.

x=f(x)

casarkos — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:36:20 -0800

Graphing calculator recommendations? My TI-89 recently went missing, most likely stolen. They've stopped making that model and now have something called the "TI-89 Titanium" with some more bells and whistles and an interface I really don't like. Before I go sniping on eBay for an exact replacement, what are some other similar graphing calculators I could look at?

I'm an aero/mechanical engineering student, and plan to use the calculator through at least grad school (if I get in, which is a whole other AskMefi question in itself). So I need at least multivariable graphing, matrix/vector operations, statistics, and maybe diff-eqs. I got the TI-89 in the first place because they loaned us TIs in high school, but now I have no brand loyalty and wouldn't mind learning a new system. Don't care for QWERTY keyboards, infrared dataports, or overly excitingly contoured keys.

the mail of the species

grumblebee — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 08:46:55 -0800

Is there a site that tells you how much it costs to mail (US Postal Service) various items? I want to mail individual CDs to many different people (in cardboard sleeves, not jewelcases), and I want to know how much it will cost per CD.

I know that there are sites where you can calculate this by weight, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for sites with lots of examples, i.e.

1 paperback book -- $2
1 CD in standard CD mailer -- $.60
1 t-shirt in manilla envelope -- $2.50

...examples of common items that people mail and aproximate costs.

I know I asked specifically about CDs, and that IS my immediate need, but I'm also interested in a more general resource.

I put this question in the "grab bag" category, because no other category seemed to fit. Should there be a 'units and measurments' category or something like that?