Have you ever tried the Google Calculator?  I mean really put it to the test?  Did you even know it existed?

Some have knocked it, but I think this thing is pretty versatile and will certainly do in a pinch.  And it’s just fun.  It can do math on just about any unit of measurement you can imagine, even several you’ve probably never heard of like cubits, furlongs, G, candelas, barye, pennyweights, moles, and hogsheads.

You can  mix and match units as long as they are of the same type, such as adding feet to centimeters and multiplying by light years and dividing by mils.  And you can get your answer in parsecs if you so desire.

It also converts currency, temperatures and whatever else you want, like BTUs to calories.  It can convert Roman numerals to decimal or binary or octal or hexadecimal.  It understands many constants like c, e, i, Boltzmann’s constant, pi, AU, etc.  You can use numbers or spell out the number.  You can use mathematical operators or spell them out.  You can tell it what you want (Avogadro’s number in moles) or ask it for what you want (how many moles in Avogadro’s number?).

It can convert more than one thing at a time.  For example, you’re from the USA but driving around in Canada and need gas.  The current price at the nearest gas station is $1.06 Canadian per litre.  Is that good or bad?  What the heck does that mean in US dollars per gallon?  Just enter “1.06 CAD per litre in USD per gallon” without the quotes to see your answer.

It even understands once in a blue moon as a unit of frequency and it knows what a baker’s dozen is.  Last time I checked though, it didn’t know what the loneliest number was.

To use  the Google calculator, just enter what you want in the search field at google.com.  I’m embarrassed to admit, when I first saw this, I stayed up till 3:00am playing with it just to see what it understood.  It was fun.  Oh, if you need the definition of a word, just enter the word ‘define’ followed by the word and hit enter.

To try it out, just cut and paste some of these into the Google calculator.  If you discover things not listed below, please post a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

Cheers,
Maggie

(thirteen inches + (12 meters * 4 hands) / 2 rods) + .63 nautical miles + four cubits, in yards
23.5 EUR in USD
4356 NOK + 803 GBP – 671 AUD in CAD
23.45 British Pounds in Norwegian money
feet in a meter
how many acres in 3 hectares
speed of light / radius of the earth
speed of light  in nanometers / fortnight
c in feet per second
83!
how many furlongs in an astronomical unit?
0x23 + 0b00011010 in roman numerals
three quarter cups, in tablespoons
nine squared
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