77-38.5=0!!

jungleboybailey said:

hi folks,

does anyone heard of the issue on iP6 and iP6+ on the calculator function?

if you input 77-38.8 and you will get Zero! I heard Apple had announcement on this issue but I couldn't find it. Anyone heard of that?

btw, I tried and mine did give me Zero!

Cheers,
JB

Click to expand...

Not sure if you're trolling... but yes, if you press the equal button twice, subtracting 38.5 from 77 two times, you will get 0.

If you press the equal button once you'll get the correct answer, 38.5.

You pressed the button twice without knowing it.

This thread is questionable -– but I did have a similar-sounding issue recently with the iPhone calculator. I was doing a calculation where the answer was identical to the last number I entered before hitting "="; I don't recall the calculation, but for simplicity/illustration, let's say it was "88 – 44 = 44".

Due to poor UI in the caculator app, there is no indication that the calculation was performed, other than the number in the display "changing" to the answer — a change which does not happen in the scenario I'm describing. (Even on a cheap pocket calculator, the 44 would "flash" so you know the subtraction happened and the answer is also 44). And so when I hit "=" and nothing would change, I would hit "=" again, and get "0" this time (because it was then subtracting another 44 from 44).

I couldn't figure out what was going on, and kept trying it again and again (I was trying to do something under pressure, which didn't help...). Finally turned to a different calculator, and saw what was up.

All they need to do is add a "flash" visual feedback — like a cheap calculator from 30 years ago — to let you know the input was received. (This is how much better the stock Samsung calculator is: it shows the next answer in tiny numbers before you even hit "="; keeps a running tally of your calculations which you can scroll back through; etc. Do Apple programmers not use calculators?)

jungleboybailey said:

thanks for all of the responses.

Click to expand...

Since 38.5 is half of 77, you hit equal twice since after typing 38.5 hitting enter, 38.5 shows up a second time.

jungleboybailey said:

hi folks,

does anyone heard of the issue on iP6 and iP6+ on the calculator function?

if you input 77-38.8 and you will get Zero! I heard Apple had announcement on this issue but I couldn't find it. Anyone heard of that?

btw, I tried and mine did give me Zero!

Cheers,
JB

Click to expand...

Maybe they are using Common Core Math.

In my opinion, not a bug, but a quirk. As many have pointed out here, if you enter:

77
- (minus sign)
38.5
=

you get 38.5. But because the display doesn't blink, you may think that you didn't hit the "=" key and so you do hit the "=" again and get 0. Which still doesn't make sense to me because if I were to enter the following:

38.5
=

I should not get zero.


That is why I prefer RPN calculator (Reversed Polish Notation, popular in HP calculators). I use PCALC on my iPhone. In RPN you do this:

77
Enter
38.5
- (minus sign)

You get 38.5. Now if you hit the minus sign again, you still get 38.5 because there is only one operand available, and PCAL would vibrate to tell you that the operation is invalid because there is only one operand for a binary operation. You can also see for yourself that there is only one number, 38.5, on the stack, so it is crystal clear what is going on.

77-38.5=0!!

jungleboybailey said:

if you input 77-38.8 and you will get Zero! I heard Apple had announcement on this issue but I couldn't find it. Anyone heard of that?






Cheers,

JB

Click to expand...

Well, first off, I can guarantee you that the answer to the calculation above is 38.2

What happened was the person pressed the equal button, saw 38.5 still in the display and thought the equal button didn't register so they pressed it again and got zero.

meistervu said:

In my opinion, not a bug, but a quirk. As many have pointed out here, if you enter:

77
- (minus sign)
38.5
=

you get 38.5. But because the display doesn't blink, you may think that you didn't hit the "=" key and so you do hit the "=" again and get 0. Which still doesn't make sense to me because if I were to enter the following:

38.5
=

I should not get zero.


That is why I prefer RPN calculator (Reversed Polish Notation, popular in HP calculators). I use PCALC on my iPhone. In RPN you do this:

77
Enter
38.5
- (minus sign)

You get 38.5. Now if you hit the minus sign again, you still get 38.5 because there is only one operand available, and PCAL would vibrate to tell you that the operation is invalid because there is only one operand for a binary operation. You can also see for yourself that there is only one number, 38.5, on the stack, so it is crystal clear what is going on.

Click to expand...

When you press = the second time, it repeats the previous operation using the answer instead of the first number. [77] [-] [38.5] [=] 38.5, call it ANS. [=] does ANS - 38.5 = 0.

bookwormsy said:

When you press = the second time, it repeats the previous operation using the answer instead of the first number. [77] [-] [38.5] [=] 38.5, call it ANS. [=] does ANS - 38.5 = 0.

Click to expand...

I am lost. So on an algebraic calculator, pressing the = sign repeat the previous operation using the answer instead of the first number. But that previous operation requires 2 operands. Are you saying that the second operand stay the same? That seems so arbitrary. Why would you want to do that in real life?

meistervu said:

I am lost. So on an algebraic calculator, pressing the = sign repeat the previous operation using the answer instead of the first number. But that previous operation requires 2 operands. Are you saying that the second operand stay the same? That seems so arbitrary. Why would you want to do that in real life?

Click to expand...

If you are repeating some sort of action, which is basically what it does, repeat last action essentially.

C DM said:

If you are repeating some sort of action, which is basically what it does, repeat last action essentially.

Click to expand...

Ok, so pressing "=" repeat the last action. For the rest to work:

77
-
38.5
=

must become

38.5
-
38.5

I see the logic of this madness now, or rather the madness of this logic Some how you do a binary operation on two operands, you end up with two operands. The first one is the result of the operation, and the second one is the second operand from previous operation.

his original post said 38.8. i don't know where the hell everyone is getting 38.5 from. regardless. i did the equation he mentioned and got the right answer. so not a bug. this dude's a troll.

robaroo said:

his original post said 38.8. i don't know where the hell everyone is getting 38.5 from. regardless. i did the equation he mentioned and got the right answer. so not a bug. this dude's a troll.

Click to expand...

The title of the thread says 38.5, and given the numbers involved along with that it seems like a likely conclusion that 38.8 in the OP was a typo and was supposed to be 38.5.

I think OP made a mistake by hitting the "=" twice as many people on this thread have pointed out.

However, I think the Calculator can be improved to make thing less confusing. When the answer to a calculation is the same as the last operand, there is no indication that the calculation has taken place, so the user may mistakenly think that the "=" keystroke didn't register, and hit it again. Perhaps there should be an indication like one flash.

To add to the confusion, at least to me or those who is not familiar with how an algebraic calculator works, is that the operands after the operation are not cleared, and pushing the "=" sign repeats the last operation.

meistervu said:

I think OP made a mistake by hitting the "=" twice as many people on this thread have pointed out.

However, I think the Calculator can be improved to make thing less confusing. When the answer to a calculation is the same as the last operand, there is no indication that the calculation has taken place, so the user may mistakenly think that the "=" keystroke didn't register, and hit it again. Perhaps there should be an indication like one flash.

To add to the confusion, at least to me or those who is not familiar with how an algebraic calculator works, is that the operands after the operation are not cleared, and pushing the "=" sign repeats the last operation.

Click to expand...

a solution would be to just make the result turn green instead of the black text/number color.

Hp12c ftw.

tigres said:

Hp12c ftw.

Click to expand...

LOL. Yeah, I have one of those stashed. RPN math works fine once you get used to it.