How to Type a Math Problem and Open the Right Calculator

The box below is the Math Solver. Type the line you already have. Solve opens the calculator that shows the work.

How do I type the problem?

Put the expression in the box and press Solve. Enter does the same thing. Shift+Enter starts a new line, which is the way to type a small system: x + y = 5 on the first line and x - y = 1 on the second. That pair opens the system solver with both equations filled in, and the solution is x = 3, y = 2.

You can also click a chip. On this page the chips are the same four the home page offers. The library under them, labeled “Browse expression examples,” has 13 lines in six groups: numbers and factors, fractions and division, powers and roots and logs, algebra, calculus, and geometry. Pick one, edit the numbers, then Solve. In that library, log is base 10. The natural log is ln.

A caret is a power, so x^2 is x squared. sqrt(2) is a square root. A slash between two whole numbers is a fraction when you write it as 3/4 + 5/6. The same slash in a plain division such as 125 divided by 8 opens long division instead.

Which calculator does a finished line open?

Each row below was opened from the expression in the first column. The result in the last column is what that calculator page reports, not a second opinion typed in later.

Three more shapes are worth knowing because the line looks similar and the page is not. 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 has three fractions, so it opens the Multiple Fraction Calculator. Two fractions stay on the Fraction Calculator. gcd(48, 180) opens the Greatest Common Factor Calculator with both numbers. sqrt(50) + sqrt(18) opens the Radical Simplifier, because the line is a sum of roots rather than one square root of a single number.

What does x² − 5x + 6 = 0 produce?

Type x^2 - 5x + 6 = 0, with or without the spaces. Solve opens the Quadratic Formula Calculator with three coefficients already filled: a = 1, b = −5, c = 6, and six decimal places of precision.

The page reports discriminant b² − 4ac = 25 − 24 = 1, roots x₁ = 3 and x₂ = 2, and the factored form (x − 3)(x − 2). The axis is x = −b / (2a) = 2.5, and the vertex height is −0.25. Check that height by substituting: (2.5)² − 5(2.5) + 6 = 6.25 − 12.5 + 6 = −0.25. The steps stay on that page.

The same idea works one degree up and down. 3x + 6 = 0 is degree 1, so it opens the linear equation solver with that equation, and the root is x = −2. A degree-2 polynomial with no equals sign, such as x^2 - 9, is treated as something to factor, so it opens the polynomial factoring calculator rather than the quadratic formula page. Add = 0 when you want the roots.

What about 120 and the circle?

Two shorter checks, both from the same box.

Factors. 120 = 2³ × 3 × 5. The number of positive factors is (3+1)(1+1)(1+1) = 16. Their sum is (1+2+4+8)(1+3)(1+5) = 15 × 4 × 6 = 360. The Factor Calculator page for this input reports both of those totals: 16 factors, sum 360. The list is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30, 40, 60, 120.

The circle. x^2 + y^2 = 3, or the sentence “Find the radius of x^2 + y^2 = 3,” both open the Circle Calculator with that equation. The center is (0, 0) and r² = 3, so r = √3 ≈ 1.732051. Area is πr² = 3π ≈ 9.424778. Diameter is about 3.464102, and the circumference is about 10.882796, which the page also writes as about 3.464102π.

Why do two similar lines open different calculators?

The box reads the shape of the line. A small change in wording is a different request, so it should land on a different page.

The fraction split is the one people trip on. Two fractions use the Fraction Calculator. Three or more use the Multiple Fraction Calculator. For the three-term sum, the common denominator is 12: 6/12 + 4/12 + 3/12 = 13/12. That arithmetic is the reason the longer line has its own page. It is a longer form, with one row per fraction.

Words in front of the math are dropped when they are the usual wrappers: “what is,” “calculate,” “find,” “solve.” So what is 3/4 + 5/6 is the same request as 3/4 + 5/6, and the fraction page still reports 19/12.

Where else is this box?

You do not have to come back to this article, and you do not have to start on the home page.

Every published math tool page carries the Math Solver. There are 461 of those pages. On a window at least 994 pixels wide, the card sits in the side column: the title Math Solver, the line “What would you like to solve?,” and an arrow. Click it and the same box opens in a dialog. On a narrower window the side card is put away, and a ∑ button takes its place in the top bar. The button is 44 by 44 pixels, which is large enough to hit with a thumb. If the side column is hidden on a wide window, the card docks at the lower left instead of disappearing.

That is why the card is on a page you already opened by accident. You came for one calculator, the problem in your notebook is a different kind, and you type it without going back to a category index.

What you type can open 291 of those 461 calculators. The card on the other math pages still works. A matched problem goes to one of the 291. The count is the set of calculators the box knows how to fill in, checked against the published math list.

The chips change with the page you are on. A derivative page offers derivative x^3 and integral x^2 beside the factor example. A rectangle page offers rectangle 3 × 4 and 3/4 + 5/6. This article uses the home-page chips, because the box embedded here is the home-page box.

The box is labeled in the same 15 languages as the rest of the site. 因数 120 opens the Chinese factor page with 120 filled in. 求导 x^3 opens the Chinese derivative page for x cubed. Teiler 120 opens the German factor page. This article stays in English. A translated math page shows the box in that language.

When does it stop and ask?

A finished line goes straight to the calculator. An unfinished line stops.

quadratic equation names the tool and supplies no coefficients. The box stays here and shows the quadratic fields so you can type a, b, and c. It does not pick an example equation and solve that instead.

triangle matches more than one tool. You get a short list — four names, from the right-triangle calculator through the general triangle solver — and nothing is calculated until you choose. The list stops at six names when more than six tools match a vague word.

mean of 4, 8, 15 is left unmatched. The numbers are real, and the site has average calculators, but this sentence is not one of the lines the solver claims to understand. It will not grab 4, or 15, and run a different calculation on that piece. Add the tool name you actually want, or open that calculator from the math index.

A plain expression longer than 300 characters is also left unmatched. The box can hold 4,096 characters, so a long paste does not get cut off in the field. It also does not get quietly shortened and solved as if the tail had never been there.

One wording habit is worth remembering from the table above. 2x + 3x with no verb opens polynomial factoring. simplify 2x+3x opens the simplifier. If you know the operation, say it.

Terms worth knowing

Math Solver

The box on this page and on the home page. On a math tool page it is the side card, or the ∑ button when the window is under 994 pixels wide.

Base 10 log

What log means in this box when you do not write a base. log₁₀(1000) = 3. ln is the natural log. log_2 is base 2.

Discriminant

b² − 4ac for ax² + bx + c = 0. For a = 1, b = −5, c = 6 it equals 1, so there are two different real roots.

Factor sum

The sum of all positive factors. For 120 it is 360, which is (1+2+4+8)(1+3)(1+5).

Remainder

What mod returns. 100 mod 7 is 2, and 100 = 7 × 14 + 2.

Definite integral

An integral with both limits written. From 0 to 2, the integral of x² + x is 14/3. The antiderivative is x³/3 + x²/2, and F(2) − F(0) = 8/3 + 2 = 14/3.

Calculators this page opens

These six are the ones the worked examples use. The box itself knows 291. You do not need the list to use it. Type the line.

Sources

The pages linked above are the record of each worked number. The definitions those pages are using are the ordinary ones:

• Quadratic formula — discriminant b² − 4ac and the ± root formula.
• Common logarithm — log base 10. log₁₀(1000) = 3.
• Divisor function — how the count and the sum of positive factors are computed from the prime factorization.
• Circle — x² + y² = r², area πr².
• Fundamental theorem of calculus — a definite integral as F(upper) − F(lower).

Last updated: 2026-09-22

The worked numbers are what those calculator pages report for the expressions in the tables. They are there so you can check the steps. They are not a graded assignment, and they are not a promise about a different expression you have not typed yet. Change a coefficient on the calculator page and read that page’s result.