[X4U] Tiger's Calculator.app no longer does percentages?

Kuestner, Bjoern Bjoern.Kuestner at drkw.com
Mon Nov 28 03:01:46 PST 2005


I taught both math and physics, and for exactly the issues discussed here I
told students to stay away from the % button.

Although % is clearly defined mathematically as 15/100, the trickery of
using % on a calculator is a pain.

In this example some suggest that 15% should be just what it is
mathematically, i. e. 15/100, which is what Tiger does. Other suggest that
the calculator should act "more intelligently" and the software should imply
that it must be 15% of something and then figure that it has got to be 15%
of 28.05.

But then, what if you type: 15 + 25 + 10%

Unless you use parentheses, what should the calculator assume? Some would
say "15 + 10% of 25", others would say "10% of 15 + 25".

The only way out of this mess is to not use the percentage button and
clearly tell the calculator what you want to do:

28.05 * 1.15 or 28.05 + 28.05 * 15%

and respectively

( 15 + 25 ) * 1.1 or 15 + 25 * 1.1

Bjorn




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