Inspiration

Calculators sure are fun. However, this calculator was going to be one we made ourselves.

What it does

This is a scientific calculator, similar to the ones natively available on web browsers, computers, and mobile phones. However, it has a few added functions, like the ability to find the zeroes of any polynomial function given, a cotangent button, and a backspace button (which I was surprised to find a lot of mobile calculators did not have). Additionally, remembering how a calculator was provided by the testing software on a lot of online exams, we included a small quiz in our program, to be solved using the calculator we made.

How we built it

This calculator was built entirely using Python, specifically Tkinter, a Python tool used to create GUI, and SymPy, a tool that helped us with our "roots" function’s ability to find the series from any polynomial. The calculator entry area and buttons (including the buttons for the quiz) were made entirely using this software.

Challenges we ran into

Syntax was a huge hurdle to cross. Even as we thought we were done with a lot of our code, we would have to spend hours debugging what seemed like simple mistakes at the time. In general, this set back a lot of progress we could have made.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

After working for (almost) 24 hours, we're pretty proud that we managed to create a scientific calculator with a backspace button. That and the cotangent button, in my opinion, gives us a real edge over our competitors in the native web/mobile calculator market. We even made a quiz to help you demo our great scientific calculator.

What we learned

Making a calculator do things is harder than you think. Having to plan out every function a calculator might do (from 2 + 2 all the way to trigonometry) is grueling work. However, it was all worth it in the end.

What's next for Smart Calculator

We'll probably make it do even more smart things. We'll probably make it look just a bit better too. We also plan to create homework /quiz software where a student logs in with their credentials and then completes the quiz/ homework. The quiz will be divided into no calculator and calculator allowed sections. If the calculator is allowed for the question, it will be present on the top of the page of the question. The student's score will be stored in a secure database which can be accessed by the instructor to calculate the final grade.