What's the difference between scientific and graphing calculators?

Graphing calculators add a screen for plotting functions and often run small programs. Scientific calculators stick to numeric output.

Scientific Calculators Explained

What makes a calculator 'scientific'

A scientific calculator goes beyond the four basic operations to handle trigonometry, logarithms, exponents, factorials, and parentheses-based order of operations.

Common functions

sin, cos, tan and their inverses handle angles. log and ln cover logarithms. x², √, and x^y handle powers and roots. Parentheses let you express order of operations clearly.

Degrees vs radians

Trig functions need to know which angle unit you're using. Most scientific calculators have a DEG/RAD toggle — getting this wrong is the #1 source of trig errors.

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