Scientific Calculator
Trig, logs, powers & more.
Scientific Calculator at a glance
Scientific Calculator is a free online calculator you can use right now to trig, logs, powers & more โ no account, no install and no usage limit. It runs entirely inside your browser, so whatever you enter stays on your own device.
- Price
- Free โ no trial, no paid tier, no watermark
- Sign-up
- Not required
- Where it runs
- In your browser โ nothing is uploaded to a server
- Works on
- Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge โ desktop, tablet and phone
- Category
- Calculators
About Scientific Calculator
A scientific calculator covering trigonometric functions, logarithms, exponents, roots, factorials and the standard constants.
The setting that causes most wrong answers is degrees versus radians. Trigonometric functions can interpret their input either way, and the same expression gives completely different results depending on the mode โ sin(90) is 1 in degrees and about 0.894 in radians. Geometry problems are almost always in degrees; calculus and physics are usually in radians. Check the mode before trusting any trig result that looks surprising.
The two logarithm buttons are also routinely confused. log is base 10 and ln is the natural logarithm, base e. They are not interchangeable: log(100) is 2 while ln(100) is about 4.6. Scientific and engineering formulas frequently specify one or the other, and substituting the wrong one produces an answer that is wrong by a constant factor and easy to miss.
Operator precedence is worth watching in any expression you type as one line. Multiplication and division bind more tightly than addition and subtraction, and exponentiation more tightly still, so 2+3ร4 is 14 rather than 20. When in doubt add brackets โ they cost nothing and remove the ambiguity entirely.
How to use Scientific Calculator
- Check whether you need degrees or radians and set the mode.
- Enter your expression, using brackets to make precedence explicit.
- Read the result, and use the memory functions for multi-step work.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my trigonometry answer wrong?
Almost always the degrees-versus-radians mode. sin(90) is 1 in degrees but about 0.894 in radians. Geometry uses degrees; calculus and physics usually use radians. Check the mode first.
What is the difference between log and ln?
log is base 10 and ln is the natural logarithm, base e (about 2.718). They differ by a constant factor โ log(100) is 2 while ln(100) is roughly 4.6 โ so substituting one for the other gives a wrong answer.
Why does 2+3ร4 give 14 and not 20?
Because multiplication takes precedence over addition, so 3ร4 is evaluated first. Use brackets โ (2+3)ร4 โ when you want a different order.
Does it handle very large or very small numbers?
Yes, switching to scientific notation beyond the standard display range. Note that floating-point arithmetic has finite precision, so results of very long calculations can carry tiny rounding differences.