Google Gets 'Magical' Graphing Calculator Capability

Raise your hand if you've ever used Google to do some simple division or to add a bunch of numbers together when you didn't have your calculator handy. If you enjoy the convenience of Google's calculator-like capabilities, there is a new function that may intrigue you. You no longer have to dust off your graphing calculator anytime a trigonometric, exponential or other similar functions is required of you. That's right: Google now has graphing calculator capabilities.

Here's what Google engineer and self-proclaimed math lover Adi Avidor had to say about this new function on Google's blog:

I still recall the day when my friend Yossi came to school and showed off his brand new graphing calculator. I was stunned by how easy it was to plot complicated functions -- meanwhile, the rest of us were still drawing them by hand on graph paper.

Today, I’m hoping to share that magical feeling with students around the world, with the introduction of graphing functionality on Google. Now you can plot mathematical functions right on the search result page. Just type in a function and you’ll see an interactive graph on the top of the search results page.

[...]

I hope students and math lovers around the world find this experience as magical as I found the graphing calculator so long ago.

It may be, as Gizmodo says, "Google's nerdiest move ever," but who knows, someday parents of school age children may be spared the expense of a T9-83+ and students will use Google instead. It does come in far more interesting colors than the calculator versions.