Forrest,
for windows, you can download the Power Calculator, which is one of
the Windows XP PowerToys released by microsoft. (Just search for
"power toy" on microsoft.com and you should find it.) This one has
function plotting, convenient exp. notation (5e3 == 5*10^3), variable
assignments, etc. It's quite nice. Here's the URL anyway:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Rgds,
- Marcel

On 4/2/07, Forrest W Christian <forrestc@imach.com> wrote:
> Call me lazy, but I'm getting a bit tired of having to think about
> things that a smart calculator should be able to deal with for me.
>
> My peeve today?  Multiplying 2.2M(ohm) and 47p(F).  Then having to count
> the zeros in the result to figure out what decade the result is in.  Add
> this to the fact that the windows calculator seems to be the easiest for
> me to find usually and it won't do exponents in nice 3,6,9,12
> increments, or even comma delimit right of the decimal point.  There's
> been more than once that I've got the wrong component value just because
> of being off a decade after calculating a capacitor value which was in
> the pF range and either miscounting one of the 12 digits or interpreting
> 22e-11 as 2.2pF instead of 220pF.
>
> Ohms law is another peeve.  Sure, for things I normally do it's pretty
> easy since I have the formula in my head (excluding any unit issues).
> But when I use a pair of values that I don't normally use it gets to be
> a pain.   IE Voltage from Watts and resistance.  (Use algebra to derive
> a real fomula from E=IR and P=EI or look up the formula, then play the
> entire units game again).
>
> And then theres the whole untit conversion thing.  mm to inches.  C to
> F. dBm to mW, etc.
>
> I know there are a lot of electronic calculators out there.  It seems
> that most of which are oriented towards knowing all of the funky
> formulas to do things like filter design and  network analysis.  Most of
> these get caught up in the formulas and don't deal with what I am
> complaining about.  I really just want something which understands SI
> units in both entry and displays, and has a few common formulas (ohms
> law, C/F and In/CM conversions, etc) and possibly the ability to enter
> my own formulas.
>
> So, before I get really irritated and just write one myself, I figured
> I'd ask if there was a tool which already exists that is a) simple to
> use and b) works for the most common math tasks that an EE does.
>
> Ideas?
>
> -forrest
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