Until I saw your post, I was going to guess the A,0,2,3,4,6,F switch would switch it into different numerical bases. Like, if you wanted to do math in binary, switch to the “2” position. “0” (or maybe “A”) would be base 10. “F” would be hexadecimal. But what you have definitely makes more sense.
Comment on Ok, some nerd please explain the switches on this IRL calculator app
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Some guesses by ChatGPT:
Left Switch (“K” setting):
- K: Likely for a “constant mode,” where the calculator uses one operand as a constant for repeated >calculations (e.g., multiplying several numbers by the same value).
- The other position is likely “normal mode,” disabling this feature.
Middle Switch (“A/Σ/4/6” etc.):
- This could control decimal rounding or precision:
- “A” might stand for “automatic” mode.
- “0, 2, 3, 4, 6” refers to the number of decimal places displayed or used in calculations.
- “F” likely stands for “full precision,” using all available decimal places.
Right Switch (“Σ” setting):
- Σ: Likely enables a “summation mode,” where the calculator automatically adds results to a running total (useful for bookkeeping or repetitive additions).
- The other position disables this mode.
Being Swedish the “constant mode” seems likely as we often used k (for “konstant”) in school math to represent a constant (e.g. for the slope of a line).
TootSweet@lemmy.world 2 months ago
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
F is 15, so that’d be weird for hex, and I’ve never seen base 4 or 6 used for anything, base 8 is common for some things but missing here.
zarp86@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
It kind of makes sense in that 15 is the last single digit in hex.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Some computers have been known to work in base 6.
froh42@lemmy.world 2 months ago
6 bits, 36 bit words. Octal
nef@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
This looks mostly right. The precision slider is definitely only for the output, not calculations. The (up - 5/4 - down) is (always round up - round anything less than 0.5 down - always round down)
What I’d like to know is how the A and F settings are different.
Benjaben@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Auto to me (if A is Auto) sounds like it’d truncate unnecessary digits (4 or 4.0 instead of 4.0000) maybe? Whereas if F is Full then you’d get full precision?
Idk seems logical but not especially useful, probably not a great guess.
lime@feddit.nu 2 months ago
i’ve never seen one of these display decimals like that, it doesn’t seem like something that would need a setting.
Benjaben@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yeah I don’t think my comment is right lol.
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I can say that A seems to be Auto in the way you think but I haven’t figured out what criteria it has for this automation. Maybe there’s a way I could figure it out. I’m not a maths kind of guy (had pretty bad teachers in school) so it’s all honestly above my head. Shamefully enough.
Benjaben@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Nothing to be ashamed of my friend, cool little device you’ve got here!
amphetaminisiert@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Did you just plug the picture into chatgpt? It’s awesome if something like that works :o
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Yes I uploaded the image and asked it the same question as OP
hemmes@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yeah, I use that feature all the time. It’s really great. I can upload an image of text data and get an output in table or summary format.
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Did you literally ask some nerd to explain this app? Thank
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Those are good. The numbered switch seems to check out at least. Other than the F. F just gives me a single decimal.
rockerface@lemm.ee 2 months ago
F is likely Floating point - so, just regular precision. Not sure what A would be, then
raccoon@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Checks out, since floating point is “flyttal” in Swedish.
tyler@programming.dev 2 months ago
For checking F try typing in an irrational number. Like 22/7
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yeah that certainly worked
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What does 22/7 get you under “A?”
juliebean@lemm.ee 2 months ago
did you just suggest a ratio as an irrational number?
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
I noticed that too, but they are coprime with one another and they aren’t divisible by 10, so they would definitely create repeating digits. Could’ve used 1/3 for the same effect though.
I just tried and it’s a pi approximation, which makes more sense.
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Bold of you to mention chat gpt in a comment, I feel like any mention of it tends to get down voted to hell, even when it’s appropriately used as you did here
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Those fucking things are great as tools to figure stuff out. Can’t trust them to be correct, but you can trust them to shoot the shit and dribble the ball to a destination which is unknowable to man
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
At some point people somehow got the idea that if you blindly trust something, bad things that come from that aren’t your fault. People definitely aren’t skeptical enough. That’s the problem.
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 2 months ago
True.
rockerface@lemm.ee 2 months ago
At least it can give you more precise questions to google to verify its output
ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
People rarely do though. Like in this post.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yeah, people are really bad at nuance and context. Even something that is normally a shitty tool can have uses.