Mac OSX 10.5.1
In the Calculator app, View Menu, select “scientific”. Also go to the Item “Decimal Places” and set it to a value greater than 0, and you will get the value displayed to the specified precision
It seems to work fine in RPN mode, but in infix it’s pretty broken. Nice find!
I thought I was the only one.
Though I also use the “programmer” mode on calculator.app. It is extremely useful when doing otherwise annoying bit by bit work in tcp/ip programming.
For quick and dirty calculations, don’t forget that in 10.5, Spotlight now offers a Googlesque ability to do some calcs right in the searchlight bar. This alone was worth the price. If only it could use Excel formulae as well, I’d probably have less of a need for opening Excel as much.
I can confirm this. Tried it several ways, can’t get an answer of “6.”
You’re not running OS X on the original Pentium, are you?
What does (pi-3)*3 give you?
Err, actually do (pi-3)*10
pi + pi
= 6
(pi - 3)* 10
= 1.4159265359
pi - 3
= 0
I am an HP48GX emulator user. I didn’t even know this application was any more complicated than the basic one.
Actually, if you just punch
pi
then
=
you get
3
pi - 3 = 0
- 10 = 0
(pi - 3)*10 = 1.415926535898
(pi - 3) = 0
The parentheses (sometimes) change the result. Weird.
PI * PI = 6.2813… on mine, but then I’m running 10.5.1.
Can you point me to the HP48GX emulator? I’m… curious.
I have an actual HP48GX, and I bought a serial cable for it, plus a serial-to-USB adaptor, so that I could connect the HP48 to the Mac, but so far I haven’t gotten CKermit working over the serial link.
No bug in 10.4.11
Mmmmmm… Apple PI <drool>
Edit: PI + PI = Homer’s favourite equation.
Are you sure? I was on 10.4.11 this morning when I found that Pi + Pi gives 6 after hitting the C (Clear) button.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7377/x48-for-os-x
The original web site for the program has disappeared, but the above link looks like the version I have on my Mac (Version 1.2, Mac OS X, PowerPC). If you have any problems downloading it, I can mail you a copy.
Mine’s 10.4.11 too. And its the same on my officemate’s Mac which is 10.4.10…
I’ve got several different calculator apps, but only one has a pi key. It works accurately.
This app seems to be all over the place. I got:
π-3=0
π-310=-26.8584073464102
π+π=6
π2-6=0.283185307179586
Numbers, on the other hand, the new spreadsheet app from Apple, returns correct values. No idea what’s up with Calculator. It must be using some odd calculation for approximation or truncating decimals somewhere. Considering that floating-point operations have been run for showing differences in performance between Apple processors, some geek would surely have caught it by now if it were a system-wide or OS-wide bug.
We’re talking about the Calculator application included in the standard installation of OS X. The scientific functions are hidden by default, but you can toggle between the relatively limited standard calculator, a scientific one, and a programming calculator in the View menu. Unless you’re using this specific application, you’re probably not going to see the error we’re seeing.
Your pun is good, but I wonder if the Apple folks did this deliberately in order to evoke some kind of pun about “Apple Pi”? Like one of those “Easter Eggs” they put on DVDs? This seems extremely unlikely, of course, but it just occurred to me.
Hmm. Maybe the joke is that Apple pi is round?