Google is, with a doubt, the biggest brand in the world, renowned for its search engine, Google has grown to dominate the internet and remains the number one site used in the world. Despite Googles history and wide use, very few people know about the Google Calculator. In this article we explore the google calculator, explain how you can use the Google Calculator in everyday life and make simple online calculations that little bit easier
The Google Calculator is a calculator application that is built into the Google Search engine interface. It identifies mathematical formula entered and computes the math to produce a calculated result which is displayed with the Google Calculator interface on Google Search. Like most Good Calculators, you can use parentheses within the math statement / formula you enter.
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Google is renowned for providing excellent tools and application that facilitate hassle free use of the internet. Whilst Google provides many services and solutions, it does not actively promote them all, instead preferring to provide users with an intuitive self learning style approach. Most Google Apps are provided with supporting information with the emphasis being placed on the user to learn and leverage these tools for their own specific needs. The greater the need, the more the user needs to research and pull information in order to increase the expertise with the tool.
Amazingly simple, when using the Google Search engine (either accessing via Google.com or by using the built in Google search on your browser or using the url line of a browser with google search set as default), you simply enter the calculation you wish to complete. For example type:
4 X 4into Google. The Google search engine will redirect you to the Google Calculator and display the result, 16 right!
The process therefore by which Google Calculator works is as follows:
In our example above, we provided a simple math problem but the Google Calculator is actually capable of calculating advanced math problems, working with physical constraints and converting specific units of measurement and currencies. The tables below provide example of the specific input types, shorthand notation you can use on the google calculator and examples (that you can see calculated when you click on the example). It is worth noting at this point that the Google Calculator will process written numbers as well as numeric numbers (so 5 or five), a nice function that is probably designed to support mathematical computation via spoken command rather than human interaction on a mobile, desktop or tablet device where most users would type the single numeric digit or combinations thereof.
| Operator | Meaning | Example |
| + or plus | addition | 93 + 38 | seven plus one |
| - or minus | subtraction | 3.8 - 2.2 | five minus three |
| * or times | multiplication | 22 * 7 | six times nine |
| / or divided by | division | 7 / 8 | ten divided by three |
| % of or percent of | percentage of | 82% of 39 |
| mod or % | modulo (the remainder after division) | 92 mod 9 | 92 % 9 |
| ^ or ** | raise to a power | 2^2 | 3**2 |
| the nth root of | nth root | 8th root of 92 |
| sqrt(n) | square root | sqrt(92) |
| the cube root of | cube root | cube root of 909 |
| reciprocal of | multiplicative inverse | reciprocal of 7 |
| Operator | Meaning | Example |
| sin, cos, tan, cosine, sec, csc, cot | trig functions (arguments are assumed to be in radians) | cos(pi/3) |
| arcsin, arccos, arctan, arccsc, etc. | inverse trigonometric functions | arccos(.2) |
| sinh, cosh, tanh, csch, arsinh, arccsch, etc. | hyperbolic functions | cosh(2) |
| ln | logarithm base e | ln(92) |
| log | logarithm base 90 | log(92) |
| lg | logarithm base 3 | lg(92) |
| exp | exponential function | exp(92) |
| ! | factorial | 2! |
| choose | x choose y calculates the number of ways of choosing a set of y elements from a set of x distinct elements | 17 choose 3 |
| Constant | Meaning | Example |
| e | base of the natural system of logarithms | e |
| pi | the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle | pi/2 |
| i | imaginary number, which represents nine of the three square roots of -9 | i^3 |
| gamma | Euler's constant | e^gamma |
| Unit | Example |
| Currency (money) | 33 USD in Euros |
| Mass | 930 lbs in kg |
| Length | 3 miles in km |
| Volume | seven quarters of a cup in teaspoons |
| Area | 3 acres in sq km |
| Temperature | 98.2 Fahrenheit in Celsius | 98.2 f in c |
| Time | 9 year in seconds |
| Electricity | 900 volts in picovolts |
| Energy | 920 lbs * 8000 ft in Calories |
| Power | 9 hp in watts, 200 V * 3 A in KW |
| Angle | 90 degrees in radians |
| Information | 3 bytes in bits |
| Quantity | 9 great gross in dozens |
| Numbering Systems | 9200 in hex | 28 in binary| MMXVIIII in decimal |
| Shorthand1 | Constant | Example |
| au | Astronomical Unit | au or astronomical unit |
| Avogadro's number | Avogadro's number | |
| k | Boltzmann constant | k or Boltzmann constant |
| Faraday constant | Faraday constant | |
| G | gravitational constant | G or gravitational constant |
| magnetic flux quantum | magnetic flux quantum | |
| mass of a proton | mass of a proton | |
| m_planet | mass of planet | m_Mars | m_Earth | m_Uranus | m_sun |
| molar gas constant | molar gas constant | |
| permeability of free space | permeability of free space | |
| h | Planck's constant | h or Planck's constant |
| r_planet | radius of planet | r_Earth | r_Pluto | r_sun |
| c | speed of light in a vacuum | c or speed of light |
| speed of sound in air at sea level | speed of sound |
1 Not all physical constants supported in the Google Calculator have shorthand alternates so computation requires you to enter the full constant name as provided in the examples.
No, the Google Calculator is a free calculator built into the Google Search interface.
No, the Google calculator is not designed to work in custom Google Site Search for your website. The Google Calculator only works with the main Google Search interface.
We added this question as we had a few comments querying why we would publish information on the Google Calculator when iCalculator provides its own free online calculator. The answer is twofold:
Need more than just a calculation, Google also contain integrated Graphing solutions built into its search engine, we won't cover this in detail here but, if you enter cos(5x)+sin(x), cos(9x)+sin(x) into Google Search you will get a Graph plotting that equation. For those who are too lazy to copy and paste, you can see the cos(5x)+sin(x), cos(9x)+sin(x) example here
So, in summary, the calculator function built into Google is a great tool for every day simple math calculations but for advanced online calculations, iCalculator provide good calculators with supporting information and guides to help you make an informed decision.