Mathematical expressions

Here you can try out mathematical expressions.

Many tools ask you to enter numeric values. In most of these cases it is possible to make use of simple mathematical expressions. The rest of this page describes in detail which type of expressions that can be used.

Elementary operations

It is possible to use the four elementary arithmetic operations: addition ( + ), subtraction ( - ), multiplication ( * ) and division ( / ). Parentheses can also be used. Note that the multiplication sign can never be left out.

Exponentiation (root and power of)

An exponentiation ab can be written as a^b. There is no easy-to-write symbol for calculating the root of a number but it can still be done using fractional exponents. The nth root of a number a can be written as a^(1/n).

Examples:
10^3
16^(1/2)

Mathematical constants

The expressions can contain the mathematical constants pi (≈ 3.1415926536) and e (≈ 2.7182818285). It does not matter whether the constants are written with lower or upper case letters.

Examples:
2 * Pi
1 / e

Number format

Both dot ( . ) and comma ( , ) can be used as a decimal mark. The digits on one side of the decimal mark can be omitted if they are all zeroes. The digits can be separated by any number of spaces.

If a number is followed by an e, and an integer, it means that the number is written using scientific notation. The expression 3.5×10^8 can thus be written as 3.5e8 . Note that there are technical limitations that limit the precision of big numbers. If a number is way too big (e.g. 1e1000) it will be displayed as an infinity symbol ( ∞ ).

Angles

Angles can be entered as degrees or radians. The angle unit is written last in the input field and it is not necessary to write out the whole name. For example, to enter 2 radians it is enough to write 2r. If the unit is omitted the angle is assumed to be in degrees.

Special symbols (Unicode)

The Unicode standard contains many mathematical symbols that can be used in the expressions (see the table below). It is not necessary to use any of these symbols because everything can be accomplished with the methods that has been described earlier. Many of them are also difficult to type on a regular keyboard. The special symbols can still be useful for instance when copying mathematical expressions from other places that use them.

Addition
Subtraction -
Multiplication X x · ×
Division \ ÷
Parentheses [ ] { }
Pi Π π 𝝥 𝝿 𝞟 𝞹
Fractions ¼ ½ ¾
Root of
Exponents ¹ ² ³
0 𝟎 𝟘 𝟢 𝟬 𝟶
1 𝟏 𝟙 𝟣 𝟭 𝟷
2 𝟐 𝟚 𝟤 𝟮 𝟸
3 𝟑 𝟛 𝟥 𝟯 𝟹
4 𝟒 𝟜 𝟦 𝟰 𝟺
5 𝟓 𝟝 𝟧 𝟱 𝟻
6 𝟔 𝟞 𝟨 𝟲 𝟼
7 𝟕 𝟟 𝟩 𝟳 𝟽
8 𝟖 𝟠 𝟪 𝟴 𝟾
9 𝟗 𝟡 𝟫 𝟵 𝟿
Degrees ° ˚
Radians