As of 2025, the College Board has banned the use of calculators with computer algebra systems on the SAT and PSAT.

Despite the abundance of free graphing software, Texas Instruments' monopoly and the continued demand for its use in standardized testing have kept the cost and design of graphing calculators largely unchanged for decades.

View a library of custom programs that can be loaded onto graphing calculators, including productivity tools, reference materials, games, and interactive applications, such as prom proposals.

Designed in 1937 by Harvard graduate student Howard H. Aiken, the 'Harvard Calculator' was used by the US Navy to solve advanced physics problems.

Calculators convert input values into a form of scientific notation—a fixed set of digits with a decimal multiplied by a base to some exponent—to store and process very large or very small quantities efficiently at the cost of rounding errors.

Try out an emulated version of the TI-84 Plus CE, the graphing calculator released by Texas Instruments in 2015.

Explore over 30,000 Olympiad-level math problems from around the world.

One of the first mechanical calculators—the Pascaline—was built in the 1640s by French mathematician Blaise Pascal to help his father, who worked as a tax collector.

Mathematicians often solve problems using wordless mental processes

It's a common technique among expert mathematicians, where thinkers rely on intuition, blurry perceptions and subconscious work—no writing, no formulas. The state is distinct from daydreaming, and often relies on sudden illuminations stemming from extended periods of subconscious reflection.

More than 2,000 years ago, a hand-powered model of the solar system called the Antikythera mechanism—the oldest example of an analog computer—could predict solar eclipses.

In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute placed million-dollar bounties on seven unsolved problems in mathematics—the Millennium Prize Problems—in the hopes of spurring solutions.

One reason Americans are bad at math

The president of Barnard College explains why we need to better understand the links between math anxiety, math avoidance, and the US’s dismal test scores.

Logic gates—digital versions of conditional statements, such as 'if 0 and 1, then 1'—are specialized circuits that combine multiple digital signals, like the binary code representing numbers, into a single output, thereby allowing machines to perform math.

Explore interactive simulations of strange attractors, the graphs that help visualize chaos

Although simple, linear equations reach an explicit value for a given input, such as *f(x) \= x* + 1 equaling 4 when *x* equals 3, some chaotic, nonlinear systems tend to evolve towards multiple values simultaneously. These simulations allow users to observe the unusual mathematical artifacts created by systems as their outputs evolve toward these distinct values.

VisiCalc was the first electronic spreadsheet, released with Apple II's personal computer in 1979

Before 1979, managers were essentially information processors working off paper ledgers. Scenario modeling was slow, manual, and expensive. Companies were understood as organizations that built things with financial analysis as secondary. VisiCalc made calculation so cheap that you could work iteratively, setting out forecasts and tweaking assumptions until you got the answer you wanted. Oks argues It created a new way of seeing the world.

A 14-year-old "human calculator" shatters six mathematical world records in one day

A teenage prodigy from Maharashtra, India named Aaryan Shukla set the record for the fastest time to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers. He did so in just 25.19 seconds–roughly equivalent to one addition every 0.5 seconds. The math whiz said he practices calculations for around five to six hours a day.

One private school network prefers AI to teachers

Alpha School, a private school network that uses AI tutors and human "guides" rather than teachers, is expanding across the US. Its founder says that two hours a day with AI-powered software frees students to pursue their passions. Critics, including the Pennsylvania Department of Education, say the methods are untested.

AI excels at assisting with structured tasks involving logistics and planning

Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity can help organize chaotic calendars, troubleshoot bedtime routines, and assist with salary planning and moving. However, specific quotes, like insurance, and local cost comparisons can be flawed since AI draws from nonlocalized datasets.

The sophisticated math jokes of 'The Simpsons'

"The Simpsons" has always been a slyly sophisticated show and has featured more than a few references to complex mathematical concepts. That's largely due to its writers' room, which has featured more than one writer who studied math before transitioning to comedy.

Research suggests using AI for schoolwork may harm critical thinking skills

An MIT study finds lower brain engagement in students who used ChatGPT, resulting in consistent underperformance in neural, linguistic and behavioral levels. AI users struggled to recall their own essays, while the brain-only group showed the highest neural connectivity and satisfaction.

Unsatisfied with the designs provided by an Apple engineer, Steve Jobs designed the original Mac calculator in about 10 minutes.

Researchers once thought Stonehenge functioned as a precise astronomical computer

In the 1960s, scientists used early computers to analyze the stone layout at Stonehenge, arguing it could predict eclipses and other celestial events. This BBC Sky at Night Magazine piece explains how the theory arose—and why scholars now doubt it.

Abaci, the plural of abacus, allowed individuals to perform arithmetic and tally quantities by moving pebbles called calculi, from which the word 'calculator' is derived.

The US lags behind other developed countries in math and science scores

The Programme for International Student Assessment, administered every three years by the OECD to 15-year-olds, scores US students below the OECD average in math (465 vs. 472) and only slightly above average in science (499 vs. 485). These figures place US pupils in the lower half of developed nations.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

A mathematical breakdown of how RSA encryption uses prime numbers to encrypt data

This form of asymmetric cryptography uses mathematical functions that rely on the product of two large prime numbers. Because traditional computers struggle to factor such products, obtaining the private keys needed to decrypt messages becomes effectively impossible. This security can be reinforced with larger prime numbers, though this makes encryption more computationally taxing.

Climate models use complex equations and supercomputers to predict future climate

The equations apply the laws of thermodynamics, fluid motion, and radiative transfer to a 3D grid along Earth's surface. After solving them for each cell in the grid over a time interval, the results carry over to neighboring cells, and the process repeats into the future.

The most bizarre numbers in the universe

Even for math-y types, some numbers are incomprehensible. This article dives into several kinds of numbers more complicated than even irrational numbers with endless decimals like "pi" or Euler's number: Noncomputable numbers. Read the bizarre...