Using the iPad Calculator App

The new iPad Calculator app brings a native calculator to the iPad in iOS 18. But it does a lot more than just basic calculations. There is a scientific calculator mode, Math Notes, a history of past calculations and much more.

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Video Transcript: Gary here with MacMost. At long last the iPad comes with a Calculator App. 
Starting with iPad OS18 in September 2024 the iPad comes with a built-in Calculator App. This is something that was missing from the initial launch of the iPad. Apple hasn't actually included a Calculator App until now. So let's go ahead and launch it here. 
You can launch it anyway you like to launch apps. This is what it look like. Now it works in both Portrait Mode, like this, but also in Landscape Mode as well. When you first use it you're going to see it in Basic Mode which looks like a very simple calculator. So to do a calculation you would just do it like you would on a physical calculator. Let's add 1 and then Plus 2 and then you use the Equals button to get the result. Now notice it actually works different than a regular calculator. On a regular calculator you would have seen the number 1 and then when you hit Plus and then started typing the next number 2 it would have replaced the 1 with a 2. You would have to remember that that's what you were doing. Then when you do the equals you would see the answer. But it here it shows you the entire formula as you go. You can type something like this, 1+2 and then keep going, +3, -4, times 5. You can see the entire calculation like this and when you're done and press equals you see the formula above it and then the answer below it. In fact, you could recall the formula. Say you hit equals too early or you want to continue adding more to the calculation you can tap on it and it will put it back here and you can continue to add new things to this. 
You can also use the Delete button at any time to delete the last character you entered. So you can just keep hitting delete. If you Hold the delete button it clears the entire thing.       
Now if you have a keyboard connected to your iPad you can also type on the keyboard. You don't need to use these button on the screen. When you do get a result like this you can tap and Hold the result and then select Copy. This means you also have a memory as well in the form of your iPad's Clipboard. You can tap and hold the answer here and Copy and then start something new, like this, and then you can tap and hold and choose Paste. It will Paste in what you copied whether it's from the calculator or something else. The only other buttons you have here are the Plus and Minus button and the Percent button. 
The Plus/Minus button allows you to convert the number to a negative. So, first type the number, then this, and you can see it puts it in parentheses to make it clear what is happening and you've got a Negative 9 here. Percentage works just like it does on a regular calculator. So you can do some sort of calculation, like let's do 4+50 like that, and then let's add 10%. The ten goes first and then you use percent here and it will understand that you want to add this together. So 54 and then add 10% like that. So the result here should be 54 plus 5.4 or 59.4. 
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But the calculator does a lot more than just this. The first special feature I want to show you is the History. It's this button up here. So you can see the results of several calculations. Go right here and you can tap and hold one and you can Copy the expression, you can Copy the result, or you can delete this individual one. You can also choose Edit and then choose multiple ones for deletion or Clear them All. You can also swipe and then you can Copy or Delete one of these entries. But if you just tap on one what it will do is bring the equation and the answer back. I tap on this one and it brings this one back. 
In addition to the Basic Mode there is also a Scientific Calculator Mode. So you tap this button here and you choose Scientific and the buttons should be familiar to anybody that has ever used a Scientific Calculator. On the right here you get most of the same buttons you had before. All the numbers, you get all the operations, but you also get all these other functions just like on a physical Scientific Calculator. You even get a second set of functions if you use the second button also very similar to a lot of these calculators. You can see how some of those change if you have that. It's kind of like a Shift Key. So to use a function you kind of follow the X and Y, first number second number formula here. So if you wanted to raise something to a power you would do, say, 2 and then use this button here x to the y and then you could see that is highlighted. You can use the second button there 2 to the 4th and actually shows you the expression there instead of just the last number you typed. You could use equals and see the results. X squared here you just do 8 and then you tap that and that's all you need. Just use equals and you get the answer. 
There's also a memory function here. So you can see Memory Clear, Memory +, and Memory minus, and Memory Recall. So you can type something like this. Let's even do something with it. There's 31 and now use m+, put it in Memory and now I can Clear. Anytime I want I can use Memory Recall and it brings it back. I can use m+ to add something to it. So let's add 2 to that. I'll add it to it. So now when I do Memory Recall you can see it is 33. Minus would be subtracting from memory. Memory Clear here will clear it. So you can see it is gone. So now memory recall doesn't do anything any more. You can still use all that Copy & Paste and go to your History here and copy items from that as well. 
Now some of the functions here, like sin and cos, they work whether you use them before the number or after the number. So, for instance, I can say I want point 6 and then cos and it puts the cos function around that and I can get the answer. You can use these parentheses for regular expressions. So, for instance if I were to do 1+2x3 the order of operations would say that the 2 and the 3 would get multiplied first for 6 and the answer would be 7. However, if I were to actually add 1+2 together first I can use parentheses for them. So left parenthesis and then 1+3 and then right parenthesis and then multiply that answer 5,3 and I get 9. You can actually use all this in the Basic Mode as well. If you use the Scientific Calculator Mode as kind of an alternative and switch between them. So let me show you. Let's go back to the Basic Calculator here and let's go and say 1+2+ and now I want to use a parenthesis. So I'm going to switch to Scientific, left parenthesis and then let's do 3+4 and then right parenthesis. Now switch back to Basic and you can see the parentheses remain there. I can multiply these by 5 and I can use parentheses in Basic Mode. I just can't type them. However if you've got a keyboard connected to your iPad then you can. I'll get the answer here. 
 
Now you can also do Conversions. Let's to this button here and Convert is a switch. I'm going to turn that on and now you're going to get two answer lines, like this. So you're going to see the units here. In this case it's feet and inches. But you can tap on one of these and change it. So, for instance, I can change it to kilometer and it will automatically put something else here that is the same kind of unit. But I can change that to something else. So, for instance I can change this to Mile. So kilometers and miles. Now if I add some numbers together like 1+2 notice that the unit that's in white here, that's where the actual number goes. The second one, the gray one, is a conversion. So this is actually adding 1+2, get 3 kilometers. I can use Equals here to do that and see the result. But then I'm getting the other unit here automatic converted. I can use this button here to reverse them. So in this case, now, I'll be working in Miles. So I can do 5 minus 2 for that and equals and I get 3 miles or 4.8 kilometers. So you have a whole variety of different things that you could choose here in terms of units. Tons of different types of units that you could use. You can select between all of those. 
You also have one for Currency. You can select a currency. You can actually search for a currency here. So let's search for, say, US dollars and selected that. Then it is going to select Euros here but you can choose something else. Now we can do something in Euros. I can just type a number. I don't even have to do a calculation and you can see I've got Euros and US dollars there. Let's switch and there's US dollars to Euros. I can type something else, like that, and get quick conversions. Currency is a little different than the others in that it is not a constant. It's actually drawing from the current daily prices. So it is getting the same prices as you might find in the Stocks App if you looked up a currency or did it in Spotlight. 
Now there is another Mode. This is called Math Notes. So when you use this then it starts to look like the Notes App. Actually this is a cross-over functionality between Notes and Calculator on the iPad. So you're not in the Notes App here. You're actually in Calculator but you are editing a note. In this case there are None here. I'm going to create a new one and now I've got a new note. I can tap in here and I can type. You can actually do calculations. So I can do 1+2 and you can see it puts equals 3 there. I can actually press Return twice and go to the next line. You can see the numbers there. What's really interesting about this is you can change this. You can Edit and I can say Delete the 2 and put 5 there. You can see how it did that. Also if you hover over the number you get this little button here and you can tap it and now I've got kind of a slider you can go back and forth and change the number that way. You can use all sorts of complex things here. So, for instance I can use a left parenthesis and then 5+3 and then right parenthesis and then I will multiply by 8 and you can see the answer there. You can also use functions here as well. So, for instance I can do sin and then I'll go and do 5 and close it and you can see it will use that function. So you can use all the different functions that you found before including using power. So I can do 4 and then I can raise that using this symbol here to the 2nd power and then I get the answer there. 
I've done other videos using Math Notes and this works the same here on the iPad. So you can do all sorts of things. Like you can use variables, for instance. So I can say A and equals 6 and then let's go, I'm just going to use a space here and stay on the same line, then B and then equals 3 and then a space and then do A and then +B and you can see it calculates the answer there. Then if I change one of these numbers I will get a new result from that. 
Something you can do on the iPad and the iPhone, but not on the Mac, is to graph. In order to graph you need an X and a Y. I'm going to use Y and then equals and then a formula that makes sense for a graph. You can see Insert Graph appears right there or you can tap the equals character to bring this up again. It is going to create this graph right here and I can see the equation charted right there. I can actually tap on it as well and I can change its color and I can even add multiple lines, curves, and things like that  to the same graph and create new graphs for them.
Now the other thing you do on your iPad but you certainly can't do on your Mac is use the Apple Pencil and actually write instead of type. So I'm going to tap on the button up here, this one, and that will bring up the writing tools here. You can see it right there. So I just want to use the standard pen right here. I can actually write something. So I can do like this and then equals and you can tap with your finger on a number there and then drag the number, like that, to get an answer. You can do the X and Y equations and all of that using your Apple Pencil. So if you take notes like this you can easily do it with your Apple Pencil as well as typing or a combination of those. Speaking of Notes, I mentioned how this is kind of like being in the Notes App. It is. Notice here I've got this math note here and it's what I see in the Calculator App when I choose Math Notes. However, if I were to go to the Notes App and look there under today, what I just created, or bring this up and actually just say I want to see Math Notes then I get to see the same exact note. So it's not in two places. It's just in one place. You can access it from both the Notes App and from Calculator. 
Now one of the problems with using a calculator like this is that you have to switch to it. Right. You're doing something else and now you have to switch to the Calculator App, do a calculation, maybe copy the answer and then go back to what you were doing. But you can multi-task on the iPad. So, for instance, the Slide Over functionality allows you to have another app open in a little window. As you can imagine the Calculator App is perfect for that. So one way to bring up Slide Over is to drag up from the bottom slightly to get the Dock. Tap and Drag the Calculator App out to the right like this. Then it appears in a little window. You can do calculations while still using another app here. So you can type something here. You can switch back to using this, you can tap and hold and copy and then go over here and paste like that. So you've got that functionality. You can tap these three dots up here to close this. Another thing you can do is use Split View. So the way to do that is you can Drag up from the bottom again to bring up the Dock. You can always tap here if you don't see Calculator listed anywhere else, and you can drag up and instead of just releasing it here you can bring it all the way over to the right or to the left and then it's Split View now. You can use the middle line there to drag to the right to make it much smaller. So it is just a different way of doing the same thing. You can also tap the three dots button here and then switch between Split View, Slide Over, or the regular full screen mode of any app. You can also use the three dots up here to drag to the left, like that if you want it on the other side. Even when in this mode you can still switch to the Scientific Calculator and you can switch to Math Notes if you want. 
So there are the basics for using the Calculator App. Obviously there is a lot of power in the Scientific Calculator. Even more power in Math Notes. I've got another video for using Math Notes and all the different things it can do. I show it on the Mac but all that stuff will work on the iPad as well. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 8 Responses to “Using the iPad Calculator App”

Jim Goddard

6 months ago

Very cool
Thanks

Don Altorfer

My ipad has OS version 16.7.10 and says it is up to date. How do I get OS version 18?

Gary Rosenzweig

Don: Perhaps your iPad is too old? Which model (and year) do you have?

Robert Zimmerman

Gary, this was a very informative video. I note that this is also applicable to the iPhone version (iOS 18) except obviously the pencil doesn't work with an iPhone. Apple has a winner with this implementation - my only wish-list item would be to have the option to use RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) like HP calculators.

Robert: You can do RPN, but only on the Mac version.

Donald A Tonks

I think this is a fantastic addition to the Apple line of great apps. Thanks for the tutorial I learned a lot and sent family members your link to your videos so they can be as impressed as I am with your videos.

Gene

Another great video! I am always impressed as to how you learn all of these features so quickly and produce a teaching video. Thanks

zadie

THANK YOU! I love the new ways the calculator works - and it works on the iPhone too! I would have never known all it does. I APPRECIATE the information that you share with us!