iPhones are known for their unique features and platform that sets them apart from other smartphones. The world’s most powerful device has almost every tool that the user would need.
In this article, we are going to check out one such tool, for all those who use iPhones and for those who are new to its interface, here is the feature, that is, the Scientific calculator on iphone that most of them do not know about.
The scientific calculator is built-in on iPhones and users can enable it instead of using a third-party calculator. This feature is something that many do not know as it’s hidden, so we will discuss how to open the hidden Scientific calculator on iPhone and how to enable it.
Hidden Scientific Calculator on iPhone
Recently, The Verge on Twitter explained the scientific calculator on the iPhone as “that glimpse of an alternative universe environment when you turn your iPhone sideways and suddenly it’s a scientific calculator” as they discovered on 23 December 2020.
Followed by many others who commented stating a sense of surprise as they also did not know about it until then!
This Scientific calculator unlocks all sorts of functionality, such as adding numbers to memory, adding parentheses, using exponents, and all those trigonometric functions from back in schools and colleges.
And the most important point to be noted is that this feature is not exactly new nor a part of a recent update and neither is meant to be hidden. This feature was introduced along with iOS 2.0 back in the year 2008, and you can even a screenshot of it on the Apple App Store page for the calculator app. Hence, this application or feature is just not used as there isn’t any sign or button notifying it.
What Are the Features of Calculators on the iPhone?
The Scientific calculator can be accessed through the normal calculator that comes along with the iPhone by default. The calculator does not behold several features that a Scientific calculator provides. Some of such features are:
- It is used to perform – logarithms, square roots, trigonometric functions, complex calculations, etc whereas the normal calculator can be used for general mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
- It is used for solving advanced math equations.
- One doesn’t need to memorize the results of the calculations to input them in other platforms, instead, they can simply use the clipboard functions – by just long press on the number field to copy the data and paste the result.
There are additional features that the iPhone user can enjoy provided they have their Apple watch connected to it:
Give Tips and Split the Bill
- Open the Calculator application on your Apple Watch.
- Enter the total amount of the bill.
- Click on the TIP button in the top corner and at the left of the divide option.
- When the Tip field is highlighted to green, just turn your watch’s Digital Crown to change the value of percentage.
- Then to split the bill between a group of people, tap on the ‘People’ and then use the Digital Crown to change the number of members (the maximum count is 50).
How to Open the Hidden Scientific Calculator on the iPhone?
The iPhone offers a hidden Scientific calculator and to activate this feature, the user needs to go to the calculator application and activate the Scientific Mode in the iOS Calculator app. Here are the steps to do the same:
First, open the “Calculator” application. To find or locate this app, simply swipe downwards on the screen, with one finger in the middle to open a search bar. Type “calculator” or “calc” and select the “Calculator” application icon when it appears.
Once the Calculator app is open, you would find a screen that has a simple interface with a grid of numbers and basic math operators. This is not the Scientific version of the calculator at all! To open the Scientific calculator mode, just rotate your iPhone to 90 degrees until it is in the landscape or horizontal orientation.
The Calculator app will adjust to fit the wide orientation of the screen automatically, and new scientific calculator options like – log, roots, radians, etc would get added to this horizontal grid.
Note: To access this mode, you need to have the orientation lock disabled.
Disable the Orientation Lock on iPhone
To disable this feature first you need to access the Control Center. Follow these steps to open the Control Centre on iPhone:
iPhone 8 or earlier versions (with Home button):
- Unlock the iPhone and swipe up from the bottom of the screen display. This will open the Control centre which has access to lots of quick tools.
- To close the Control Center, simply press the Home button or tap on the space of the upper portion of the screen.
For iPhone 12 or later versions (without Home button):
- Unlock the iPhone and swipe up from the bottom of the screen display, to open the Control centre.
- Simply swipe down to close the panel.
From the Control centre, tap on the orientation lock button which would be highlighted as the feature is enabled. This would be located just above the Screen mirroring option. Now, try rotating your iPhone again while running the Calculator application. You would see the Scientific calculator mode on its widescreen. A whole new world of more complex math has now opened to explore and use.
In this article, we have covered all the steps to access the hidden Scientific Calculator on the iPhone. Hope this was useful to use the feature that most iPhone users aren’t aware of!
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