Tips & Tricks | Nokia Beta Labs

I have posted these lesewhere, but some people may not see them, so... I thought a generic post for items like theses would be a good idea.

Firstly, working with percentages. (I am not the only one to have commented on this subject).

ATM, HC does not recognise %, so the only way is to work with decimals.

To find say 85%, then multiply by 0.85. Simples ;)
To add 15%, multiply by 1.15.
To subtract 15% muliply by (100-15) = x0.85

To find a percentage say 17/20 multiply by 100/1

17/20 x 100/1 = 1700/20 = 1700 divided by 20 = 85 so = 85%

Cube roots and above.

HC understands the SquareRoot symbol. To do anything like cube roots you need to work with fractional powers (probably not the right term)

-/4=2 but so does 4^1/2 cube root = ^1/3 etc... ^1/n

And where the -/ symbol does not work for negative numbers, ^1/2 does.

If anyone has any other tips, feel free to add them here.

N97 RM-505 v 11.0.21 (.235.07) Three UK
N95-8GB (93-02) RM-320 v 30.0.018 Three UK

Thu, 2009-08-06 01:30 escribblings: Squaring negative numbers

what is -9^2

well, that depends on what you actually mean.

(-9)^2 = -9x-9 = 81

-(9^2) = -(9x9) = -81

HC treats the expression -9^2 as -(9^2) so to get the other answe you NEED to enter it as (-9)^2.

in response to my previous point about negative square roots - (-81)^1/2 gives the answer "NaN", where -81^1/2 OR -(81^1/2) = -9

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