
Google can be used as a graphic calculator - bpierre
https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=sin%28x%29%2b1/2+sin%282x%29%2b1/3+sin%283x%29
======
jxcole
Sadly, google's cannot be used to calculate 3D plots, though wolfram's can:

<http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=x%5E2%2By%5E2>

~~~
adabsurdo
you know you're on hacker news when the most upvoted comment has found
something negative to nitpick out of a cool story.

~~~
kevinalexbrown
Adding positive comments doesn't usually add as much information. The story
itself was a positive comment. Critical discussion is best done not by saying
"hey, cool story" - that's what upvoting is for. There are some cases where a
non-negative comment is great, like pointing other readers to an interesting
piece of related information, but if all it does is confirm what the original
submission said, it's less informative.

~~~
sneak
"It stinks!"

[http://media.onsugar.com/files/2011/04/14/2/1437/14373728/a0...](http://media.onsugar.com/files/2011/04/14/2/1437/14373728/a02cce7df4ac68a1_the-
critic.jpg)

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arnorhs
Great. So can DuckDuckGo:

[http://duckduckgo.com/?q=sin%28x%29%2B1%2F2+sin%282x%29%2B1%...](http://duckduckgo.com/?q=sin%28x%29%2B1%2F2+sin%282x%29%2B1%2F3+sin%283x%29)

And on top of that, it also gives you the result right there on the page:
<http://cl.ly/0a3L0K3T2a0E350d300n>

Clickable and brings you to wolfram alpha:
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sin(x)%2B1%2F2%20sin(2x...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sin\(x\)%2B1%2F2%20sin\(2x\)%2B1%2F3%20sin\(3x\))

zero-click search is an awesome feature of DuckDuckGo

~~~
mda
"Great. So can DuckDuckGo"

No, I don't see a fast interactive graph when I clicked on that link.

~~~
a_m0d
It seems like it does sometimes, but not at other items. I clicked around on
the page a bit, then clicked on the search button, and suddenly it showed me
the zero click info, which was hidden before.

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aaronharnly
But was this built by a couple of guys sneaking into the building after their
contract expired? If not, it's merely serviceable.

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rcfox
WolframAlpha has slightly more sophisticated graphing calculator
functionality:
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sin%28x%29%2B1%2F2+sin%...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sin%28x%29%2B1%2F2+sin%282x%29%2B1%2F3+sin%283x%29+%3D+x%5E3%2Bx%5E2%2F3)

~~~
tjoff
I haven't used WolframAlpha that much for graphs but I've often been bothered
by the lack of zoom, scale and pan which google seems to have solved quite
nicely.

Hopefully WA will do something similar in the near future.

~~~
dredmorbius
You can set axis ranges, which address some of the zoom issues. I've found
this to be a bit tricky / iffy at best, particularly when using financial
datasets.

Agreed regards zoom and such.

------
zoul
They seem to have come with some nice algorithm to connect the graph dots. The
problem: When you draw the graph using a naive formula putPixel(x, y(x)) you
get isolated dots. Therefore you have to draw tiny lines between the points to
get a nice smooth curve instead of isolated dots. But then there is the
question of which points to connect – for example in tan(x) you can’t connect
the last point on the ‘upper right hand’ with the first one coming from the
bottom. This is surprisingly hard to solve simply (at least it was for me).
Most packages simply resign – try zooming out a tan(x) to see the erroneous
vertical connecting lines. Google does it right even in high zoom ratios. How
do they do it?

~~~
numlocked
I got this message after zooming out tan(x) a ways:
[http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer...](http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=1688281)

"Try to pan or zoom the function to a different region. The plotting algorithm
detected one of the following: \- Too many asymptotes \- Too many transitions
of the function from defined to undefined regions \- Too many points on the
graph that might not represent the function value currently due to high
volatility"

It looks like can actually detect when their graphing algo starts to break
down.

------
biot
I've just proven mathematically that the Flying Spaghetti Monster exists:

<https://www.google.com/search?q=cos(x)-tan(sec(x%5E2)>)

~~~
shubsengupta
"This function may not be plotted correctly" LOL it's okay Google, you're
excused on this one.

------
toxic_madness
The easy zooming and panning makes this a better graphing experience than any
other calculator/software I have used so far. True, you don't have the
capabilities of Mathematica available, but it seems to work great for graphing
a single variable function.

~~~
Too
This is something i don't understand why other mathematical tools do so badly.
Have you tried navigating the graph in a matlab plot? You have to select one
tool for zoom in and another tool for zoom out and then click the graph to get
a huge zoom-step that isn't even centered around where you clicked. Then
another tool for moving to the correct position and another to see the values.
SERIOUSLY?!!?!!!! This is a super expensive tool designed for plotting and
comparing graphs and the diagram-control stinks so bad. Implementing this
feature properly is one day of work. Synchronizing dimensions of axis between
different diagrams is also something very important that matlab has huge
difficulties with. Mathematica isn't much better in this regard even though
they at least plot with anti aliasing T_T.

Related is also navigation in maps-software. Not many programs do this right
even though it's so simple.

------
tmcw
Cool - always used fooplot for this, and probably will continue to:
<http://fooplot.com/>

------
ibejoeb
I expected to see a graph, but I'm just getting search results. How did you
access it?

~~~
mirkules
Do you have Javascript turned off, in particular, google.com? Disallowing
google.com only gives me search results. (gstatic.com is irrelevant, I think)

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sygma
This is a neat feature. A good alternative is to use Wolfram Alpha [0]

[0]: <http://www.wolframalpha.com/>

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vilqqu
I use Wolfram Alpha to check if I solved my math assignments correctly. Can
you solve e.g. limes with Google? I tried a couple of syntaxes but nothing.

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=limes+%28x%5E3%2Bx%29%2...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=limes+%28x%5E3%2Bx%29%2F%28x-1%29+when+x+-%3E+1)

------
Concours
That's a cool feature, I've been using <http://www.mathpimp.com/> for that,
Google is a cool alternative, for now and then.

------
ajslater
Is there an fn() syntax so I can plot recursion and bifurcation?

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aubergene
<http://www.graphycalc.com/> A nice 3d calculator in JavaScript by Dean
McNamee

~~~
cousin_it
Really cool! I'd like to have it automatically expand the range on zoom,
though, like Google does. And some numbers on the axes would be nice.

------
dennisgorelik
<https://www.google.com/#q=sin(1%2Fx)>

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efader
Google loves its users and has an equation to prove it
[http://www.trendslate.com/2011/12/05/google-graphing-
calcula...](http://www.trendslate.com/2011/12/05/google-graphing-calculator/)

~~~
viswabharathi
Here is a slightly modified version, <http://goo.gl/kYIBX> this proves that
love is complicated (jff).

------
herdrick
Anyone know how to denote 'log base 2'? This: "log (x)" assumes base 10.

~~~
spacemanaki
Try lg(x) ?

~~~
herdrick
that's it, thanks

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marcamillion
Even better is that it's not using Flash. JS and Canvas it seems.

~~~
marcuswestin
svg

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topbanana
No FM synthesizer. What were they thinking?

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kylek
But can it graph the Batman equation?!

~~~
pbhjpbhj
The Batman Curve is not the solutions of a single equation.

<http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BatmanCurve.html>

~~~
Avshalom
While I have no desire to do it, It could be transformed into polar
coordinates and then combined into a single Fourier series to piece it
together.

~~~
tlrobinson
I tried, sadly it limited me to 32 "words" :(

------
J3L2404
You can also draw multiple functions by separating with a comma.

[http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2011/12/showing-some-
love-t...](http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2011/12/showing-some-love-to-math-
lovers.html)

------
suyash
nice! wish I knew that in college!

~~~
suyash
never mind, it's a new feature

------
trip42
In high school I programmed Mortal Kombat on my TI-85, if it can't do that and
can't be rooted via zshell, it doesn't count.

------
tluyben2
Offtopic observation: when Wolframalpha first appeared everyone on sites like
Reddit and HN were falling over eachother to explain, in detail, what kind of
an arrogant d*ck & loser Stephen Wolfram really is. Ignoring the Wolframalpha
product features and going directly for the person behind it and his book and
so on. Now seems like everyone loves his product and, subsequently, never
mentions the guy behind it anymore. Anyone else noticed that?

~~~
wx77
I believe you are remembering wrong:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=611656>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=607532>

Not to say it is uncommon to call Stephen Wolfram egotistic, I swear there was
a thread about Wolfram remembering Turing and people counting how many times
Wolfram mentioned himself but it may have been killed as I can't find it.

~~~
gbak
The discussion you are looking for is this one:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3080470> (Wolfram on Steve Jobs)

~~~
wx77
Actually it was probably this: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1454373>
and I am remembering the amount of disdain wrong

