Some Digital Help With Everyday Math Problems

There was a new report last week about how a young man who had been trapped under his car while he was fixing it used Siri to call for help.  Siri and other speech recognition devices and software can provide some truly extraordinary things but there are other more mundane tasks that can be made easier with their help.

If you are like me, you often need to use a calculator when working on financial projects.  I began using spreadsheets back in the days of Visicalc and Multiplan so I don’t have any problem with complex math models in Excel.  Where I have problems is using the key pad on the computer to enter simple addition of multiple multi-digit numbers.  A combination of my fat fingers and lack of touch typing skills really slows me down.  So I was delighted to learn that there are several options available that allow me to just speak the numbers.

If you have an iPhone with Siri, you can perform a plethora of math calculations just by speaking the numbers.  Let’s say you have a column of five multi-digit numbers that you want to sum.  Just say “Siri, what is 123 plus 234 plus 567 plus 899 plus 5678?”  Siri will display all the numbers and give you the total.  This saves you from having to enter all the numbers by hand.  This works with whole numbers, fractions, decimals and dollars and cents.

Siri can do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as more complex calculations such as square roots and cosines.  Again, not only will you get the answer, Siri will even show the work.  Siri must have had the same math teacher I had in 8^th Grade.

If you don’t have Siri you can do many of the same calculations using Google.  You must be sure to turn on the “search by voice” function within Google.  Just like Siri, as you speak the problem, Google will show the numbers being spoken on the screen in the search box enabling you to check to make sure that you have all the correct information before accepting the answer.

Often we look to our smart devices to perform very complex tasks like using a GPS to find the fastest route to our destination. Sometimes just a bit of help balancing our check book is all we need.