Apparently the iOS calculator has had a scientific mode since 2008

Right this moment I discovered that the iPhone’s built-in calculator app has a scientific mode — and all you need to do to entry it’s flip your telephone on its aspect. If you happen to’re the kind of one that retains your telephone completely in portrait lock (like me), this would possibly come as a shock to you, because it did to many people right here at The Verge.

This unlocks all types of performance, like including numbers to reminiscence, parentheses, exponents, and all these trig capabilities from again in highschool. The function isn’t precisely new, or hidden: It was introduced in iOS 2.0 again in 2008, and there’s really even a screenshot of it on the App Retailer web page for the calculator app.

To be honest, most individuals most likely by no means see that App Retailer web page, because the app comes pre-installed on each telephone. It’s not the primary app that you simply’d most likely search for in the event you wished to put in a brand new calculator, both — even with the hidden(ish) performance, it’s nonetheless not nice.

For starters, there’s no ticker tape function, which helps you to see all of the operations you’ve simply executed, which is beneficial when you’ll want to see in the event you’ve already added a price or not. It additionally makes some important capabilities like parentheses — which I exploit in nearly each math equation I do — exhausting to entry.

Fortunately, there are different choices: PCalc offers a more robust calculating experience, and presents a free PCalc Lite model that’s additionally price a obtain. Or for extra severe math, there’s the TI-30XS, which may make some issues (like fractions) really easy it nearly looks like dishonest.