What Does Kalkulator Do? |
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What does it do? |
Things it does not do |
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You can buy a decent "scientific" (whatever it means) calculator in a drugstore for $15. Why bother with a calculator program?
A good question. Well, a $10 drugstore-brand camera also takes pictures... The list below should, I hope, satisfy your curiosity; it should also help you to compare Kalkulator with any other program of this kind. |
Evaluating arithmetic expressions |
Unlike most "normal" calculators with the display limited to one operand, Kalkulator allows you to enter the whole expression in a notation very much like the traditional, "blackboard" one, and only then computes its value. At any moment the expression can be reviewed, modified, and recomputed.
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A rich set of functions |
Kalkulator has more than 100 functions, computed, where only possible, with 18 decimal digits of accuracy.
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Result formatting |
Any computation result can be displayed in a choice of formats:
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Variables |
Results of computations can be stored in variables (memory locations), denoted as A..Z. These can be later used in other expressions. |
Unit conversion and physical constants |
Any calculation result can be converted between different measurement units. Conversions for area, energy, force, length, mass, power, pressure, speed, temperature, time, and volume are provided. The program allows you also to recall the values of a number of popular physical constants (or any other constants you may wish to define). Both units and physical constants are user-configurable, being defined in separate text files. |
Numerical operations |
Kalkulator can take a function typed in as an expression and submit it to the following numerical operations:
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Roots of polynomial equations |
Kalkulator finds real and complex roots of polynomial equations with real coefficients (up to the fourth degree; up to the third in the non-registered version). Any arithmetic expressions can be entered as polynomial coefficients, and the roots (or their Re/Im parts) can be stored in any Kalkulator variable. |
Function plots |
Any function defined as an expression can be plotted within a given x-range.
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Computer math calculator |
A separate panel is used as an RPN computer math calculator with the following basic features:
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Statistical operations |
Kalkulator has a data buffer to store one- or two-dimensional data points (X or XY). Simple statistical and graphic operations can be performed on the data:
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Distribution or regression fit |
Kalkulator fits your data with an arbitrary regression or distribution function with up to nine free parameters.
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Linear algebra operations |
Kalkulator performs arithmetic operations on vectors and matrices. These operations include:
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Systems of nonlinear equations |
Kalkulator also solves (or at least attempts to solve) systems of up to nine nonlinear equations, using the Newton-Raphson method, starting from a user-supplied initial guess. |
Differential equations |
Kalkulator solves systems of up to nine ordinary differential equations (ODE) of the first order. Most problems involving higher-order derivatives can be easily converted into first-order ones and then solved using Kalkulator. The popular Runge-Kutte technique is used. |
Function extremum search |
Given a function of up to nine arguments and an initial guesstimate, Kalkulator uses the downhill simplex method to search for the function minimum or maximum. |
Save and restore |
Upon exit from the program, the complete status of all operations and settings is saved, to be re-read from disk next time Kalkulator runs. The program will continue as if it was never exited from. |
Ease of use |
The user interface has been carefully designed: the more advanced features do not stand in the way of users with simpler needs (here, of course, you will be the judge). There is also a comprehensive Windows Help file attached. |
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Posted 1995/12/15; last updated 2005/08/14 | Copyright © 1995-2005 by J. Andrzej Wrotniak. |