PhotoMath solves math equations using your smartphone camera

The app many students wished for has finally come true. With PhotoMap anyone can solve math equations by simply pointing their smartphone camera at the problem.

Google can solve geometry problems

If you frequentely need to solve geometry problems, you'll already know you can use the amazing Wolfram Alpha (for that and lots more - although if you do, you'll probably trust yourself you know how to do it right without external help). But sometimes you may just need a quick answer or validate that you haven't forgot your math lessons from eons ago, and for that you may like to know that Google can also answer your math questions.

There's a whole section dedicated to geometry, with fórmulas, 2D shapes and even 3D objects calculations, with interactive widgets you can quickly and easily play around to find out what you need.

Areas, edges, volume, sheres and cylinders, prisms and even dodecaedron calculations are just a question away:

• [what is the volume of a cylinder with radius 4cm and height 8cm]
• [diagonal of a rhombus calc]
• [formula for a triangle perimeter]
• [hypotenuse calc]
• [how do I calculate triangular prism volume?]
• [find the diameter of a sphere whose volume is 524 gallons]
• [a^2+b^2=c^2 calc a=4 b=7 c=?]
• [calculate the diagonal of a cube with 6mm edge]

As a shortcut, you can simply enter the name of the shape/object followed by calc, like: sphere calc, cylinder calc, triangle calc, etc. But the most amazing part is being able to simple ask voice questions into your smartphone (soon, a smartwatch) like: find the sides of a cube whose volume is 5 liters.

Google Doodle celebrates Shakuntala Devi - the "Human Computer"

You may have never heard of Shakuntala Devi before, but Google decided to give a little help with that by featuring her in a Google Doodle, and rightfully so. Shakuntala  is one of those extraordinary cases that reminds us that the human brain is far more mysterious (and powerful) than we can imagine. If one would tell you it was possible for a human to do math calculations faster than a computer, you'd think they were joking. But in Shakuntala Devi's case, that's precisely what happened.

It isn't by chance that this woman was referred to as as human computer:

• In 1977 in the USA she competed with a computer to see who gives the cube root of 188,132,517 faster, she won. That same year, at the Southern Methodist University she was asked to give the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds. Her answer—546,372,891—was confirmed by calculations done at the U.S. Bureau of Standards by the Univac 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation. 

• On June 18, 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds.This event is mentioned in the 1982 Guinness Book of Records.

I won't even dare you to try out any of those calculations yourself, as you'd probably get frustrated after still being stuck with it after the first couple of minutes; but one has to wonder: how many more of these amazing human beings are still out there, roaming our small little planet unnoticed as we speak?

Screen Size of all the iPhones put Together

I don't know if it happens the same to you, but sometimes, out of the blue, I start thinking about stupid calculations like: how much space would it 1000€ in 1 cent coins; or how much would it weigh a million dollars in gold; or even how long would it take to count all the pixels in a Ultra HD 4K screen at the rate of one per second (answer: 96 days!) This usually happens when I'm utterly bored (like when stuck in traffic, though it's rarely these days).

But the funny part is that found out a place where this sort of thing is actually calculated thanks to a post that tells us how large a screen made of all the iPhones ever made would be!

The answer? A gigantic screen over 1.5km tall and over 860 meters wide (that's 5,059 by 2,846 feet for you "non-metric" guys).

It sure would be a sight to behold... but we will have to do with some mockup renderings of such screen next to Central Park in NY.

Now that we know this essential geek fact of life, who's willing to calculate the size of a screen composed of all the screens built so far (TVs, computers monitors, tablets, etc)? Would it be enough to cover an entire country?

P.S. That same stupid calculations site has a lot of other interesting calculations you might want to browse around. :)

MyScript Calculator - All the Math at the Tip of your Finger

If you frown every time you hear about math equations, you'll love to see what I have to show you today: an App that will make your relationship with mathematics so much easier you might even reconsider hating it. You just need to download and try this amazing free App called MyScript Calculator (available for both  Android and iOS)?

The App would be interesting enough by the simple fact that you don't get a numeric keypad - you just write on it as if it were a piece of paper, and your handwriting gets instantly converted to digitized numbers and symbols. But, there's much more: you can write a "?" when you want to know an unknown value in an expression - like, for instance "10-?=8".

Of course, that wouldn't of much use... but you'll see what I mean when you start writing equations like these:

Yep, you're seeing right. This App can gobble up practically anything you can throw at it, and I just wonder how my math lessons would have been a lot easier if we had this sort of tool back then.

Google Scientific Calculator

You probably knew already that Google can do a lot more, than simple web searches - like unit conversions, currency conversions, movie cast searching, and mathematical calculations.

If you enter anything from a simple "2+2" to a more complex mathematical expression, Google will try its best to provide you with an answer. And now... it goes even further, because next to the result you get a full-fledged scientifica calculator.

So, if you don't have a calculator next to you and don't want to call up a calculator App on your computer or mobile device, all it takes is a Google Search (that you can even access via voice).

P.S. And don't forget that Google can also render 3D graphical equiations.

[via Techcrunch]

Google Learns to Draw Math Functions

You've probably thought you'd have to resort to Wolfram Alpha whenever you had to map a mathematical function, but - although Wolfram is still quite impressive - Google has decided to also step up its own math features, and now, besides being able to do math calculations and conversions: Google can also show math functions graphically.

As you would expect, it didn't take long for someone to show up their math love appreciation in heart form.

How to Understand Trigonometry

If trigonometry has always been a strange world you've never truly understood, maybe all you need is a little help... in a visual form.

That's exactly what you get in this interactive Touch Trigonometry site. A way to visualiza what all those trigonometry "badwords" mean. It shouldn't take you long to realize what sin, cos, tan, and all other trigonometric functions really mean.

Whether you're trying to understand trigonometry by yourself, or want a free tool to help you explain it to someone else, I'm sure you'll find this interactive touch trigonometry quite helpful.