Expressing formulas

Here's how you can enter your formulas. It's almost but not quite like ordinary math notation from the textbooks; there are differences because you have to type into input boxes instead of writing things out freehand. For instance, to express x²+1 you type in x^2+1.

Basics

Adding and subtracting work as you'd expect: x+5, 1-x.

To multiply, use *: 7*x means 7 times x.

To divide, use /: x/3 means x divided by 3.

x ⁿ is written x^n.

The square root of x is written sqrt(x).

Putting all this together, here's a bigger example, a solution to the quadratic equation:
sqrt(b^2 - 4*a*c) / (2*a).

Reference Manual

Feature	Syntax	Examples
Numbers	1	42.5
Variables	x	longvariablename
x y	x ^ y	3^2 = 9 2^2^3 = 2^8 = 256
Multiply, divide	x * y	3*2 = 6
	x / y	3/2 = 1.5
Add, subtract, negate	x + y	3+2 = 5
	x - y	3-2 = 1
	-x	-3 = 0-3
Comparison	x < y	2<3 = 1 2<2 = 0 3<2 = 0
	x <= y	2<=3 = 1 2<=2 = 1 3<=2 = 0
	x = y	2=3 = 0 2=2 = 1
	x <> y	2<>3 = 1 2<>2 = 0
	x >= y	same as y <= x
	x > y	same as y < x
Conjunction	x and y	1 and 1 = 1 1 and 0 = 0 0 and 0 = 0
Disjunction	x or y	1 or 1 = 1 1 or 0 = 1 0 or 0 = 0
Absolute value	abs(x)	abs(-2) = 2 abs(2) = 2
Arc-cosine	acos(x)	acos(1) = 0
Arc-sine	asin(x)	asin(1) = pi/2
Arc-tangent	atan(x)	atan(1) = pi/4
	atan2(x, y)	atan(-1, -1) = -3 pi / 4
Ceiling	ceil(x)	ceil(3.5) = 4 ceil(-3.5) = -3
Cosine	cos(x)	cos(0) = 1
e x	exp(x)	exp(1) = 2.7182818284590451
Floor	floor(x)	floor(3.5) = 3 floor(-3.5) = -4
Conditional	if(x, y, z)	if(1, 42, 137) = 42 if(0, 42, 137) = 137
Natural logarithm	log(x)	log(2.7182818284590451) = 1
Maximum	max(x, y)	max(2, 3) = 3
Minimum	min(x, y)	min(2, 3) = 2
Rounding	round(x)	round(3.5) = 4 round(-3.5) = -4
Sine	sin(x)	sin(pi/2) = 1
Square root	sqrt(x)	sqrt(9) = 3
Tangent	tan(x)	tan(pi/4) = 1 (approximately)

Pitfalls

When you write a+b*c, should that mean to add a and b, and then multiply by c? Or is it add a to the result of multiplying b and c? In other words, which goes first, the + or the *? The answer is clear if you look at the original math notation, a+bc: the b and c go together, then we add their product to a. What if you wanted it the other way? In pencil-and-paper math, that'd be (a+b)c, and you can do the same thing at the computer as (a+b)*c. In general, operators listed earlier in the reference manual above, like *, come before later ones, like +.

Write 0 < x and x < 5, rather than 0 < x < 5. The latter is interpreted as (0 < x) < 5, which first evaluates 0 < x yielding a truth value (1 or 0 for true or false), then compares that truth value to 5. Don't do that!

a/b*c is not a/(b*c). In handwritten math notation you could write that with a above the division line and b*c vertically below it, but we can't do that here: everything is horizontal and so the program can't tell if you meant (a/b)*c or a/(b*c). (It chooses the first, in fact.) When in doubt, use parentheses.

The program does not understand sin x, but requires sin(x) instead. This is because, if you said sin x * y, it'd be uncertain whether you meant sin(x * y) or (sin(x)) * y. So all the functions need parentheses; the lessened ambiguity is worth the extra typing.

While you can refer to real numbers like pi and e and the square root of 2, this program can't represent them exactly; it only holds onto a fixed number of digits. For example, computing tan(pi/4) doesn't give 1 exactly, but 0.99999999999999989. You can get completely bogus answers if your formulas are too sensitive to these imprecisions; there isn't space here to treat this issue.