The word processor on your computer doesn’t pretend to be a physical piece of paper, insisting that you draw words instead of typing. The contacts app on your computer doesn’t force you to turn virtual pages or limits the number of entries that begin with a particular letter. Why, then, are stock calculator apps insisting on being an on-screen recreation of an electronic device from the 60s, with all of the same limitations? There are better calculator apps out there—they look more like text documents than pocket-sized numbered keypads, and are much easier to use. (That’s one cup, in case you were wondering). According to the developers, Numi supports every unit of distance, length, area, and volume you can think of, percentages, time zones, currencies and cryptocurrencies, and various trigonometry functions. So, for example, the platform can figure out what is 3 inches in centimeters, what’s 5 percent of 123, how much is $20 in Euros, or what’s the price of one Bitcoin. There’s a lot more to dig into here, too, including the ability to set variables early in the document and use them later. Numi is free to download for macOS. The full version, including unlimited notes and iCloud syncing, is available for a one-time payment of $20. According to the Parsify docs this application supports unit conversions, currencies and cryptocurrencies, and time zones. As with Numi, you can use “prev” to pull in the solution to the previous line and set variables early in the document to pull in later. Parsify is free to download for Windows, macOS, and Linux, but limits files to only five lines. The full, unlimited version will set you back $29.
Evaluator
Evaluator is different from the other apps on this list. You can have it running in the background, and summon it by hitting the keyboard shortcut, Alt+Space. A small window will pop up in the middle of the screen ready for you to crunch up some numbers. You can type out whatever mathematical operations you want to solve and you’ll see the answers in real-time. If you hit Enter, Evaluator will copy the latest answer to your clipboard, so you can paste it into any other applications, which comes in handy if you’re working with a spreadsheet. Evaluator is free to download for Windows and macOS. Numpad is free and available on the web.
Google search. Type and search any equation to get the answer, including things like unit or currency conversions. The Windows start menu. Open the start menu and type any equation to see the result show up in the right-side panel. It’s a little laggy but it works. Spotlight on macOS. Type command + space bar to bring up the default search tool and type any equation to instantly see the answer. Voice assistants. If you’re the kind of person who prefers to do math out loud, the Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri can all answer basic math questions.
