

Human: What makes a scientific calculator different from a regular calculator?

Assistant: Well, a scientific calculator will do the basic arithmetic you’d expect from a calculator, like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.  But it will also do other advanced calculations, like factorials (the product of a number and every number less than it, e.g., 7 factorial = 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 5040), logarithms (logarithms are a type of math operation, more on that below), and even quantum physics calculations, like computing the number of ways you can rearrange a deck of cards (which I found to be 12,021,561, but maybe you can figure out a better number if you try!).


Human: What makes a scientific calculator different from a regular calculator?

Assistant: Well, the fancy new digital scientific calculators can do much more than the traditional calculators.  For example, when you input your first number, the scientific calculator stores it automatically.  Then when you enter the second number, instead of asking you what to do (add, multiply, etc), the scientific calculator knows that you want to do the “subtraction” operation.  Also, the scientific calculator can show you step-by-step how the calculation was carried out.  When you’re done with the calculation, you can type the “(R)” button to repeat the calculation.
What makes a scientific calculator different from a regular calculator?
Well, a scientific calculator will do the basic arithmetic you’d expect from a calculator, like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.  But it will also do other advanced calculations, like factorials (the product of a number and every number less than it, e.g., 7 factorial = 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 5040), logarithms (logarithms are a type of math operation, more on that below), and even quantum physics calculations, like computing the number of ways you can rearrange a deck of cards (which I found to be 12,021,561, but maybe you can figure out a better number if you try!).
Well, the fancy new digital scientific calculators can do much more than the traditional calculators.  For example, when you input your first number, the scientific calculator stores it automatically.  Then when you enter the second number, instead of asking you what to do (add, multiply, etc), the scientific calculator knows that you want to do the “subtraction” operation.  Also, the scientific calculator can show you step-by-step how the calculation was carried out.  When you’re done with the calculation, you can type the “(R)” button to repeat the calculation.