google_logoThat’s what I love about Google. They’re like Microsoft, only going about their grab for absolute power more covertly, making the masses love them instead of detest them. In any event, I’d almost forgotten how powerfully useful the plain old Google Search is until I needed to do a quick reference check yesterday.

200 miles per hour is how many kilometers per hour was my question. Not wanting to use my brain as if often the case these days, I quickly typed the question “200 miles per hour = ? kilometers per hour” into the search bar and hit enter…

…to be greeted with:
200 miles per hour = 321.8688 kilometers per hour

Beautiful!

According to Google’s help page, Google’s built-in calculator function can solve math problems involving basic arithmetic, more complicated math, units of measure and conversions, and physical constants.

These sample queries below demonstrate some of the things this nifty little bit of programming can solve:

5+2*2
2^20
sqrt(-4)
half a cup in teaspoons
160 pounds * 4000 feet in Calories

Oh, and don’t forget Google’s built in currency converter either! It does nifty things like:

3.5 USD in GBP
currency of Brazil in Malaysian money
5 British pounds in South Korean money
2.2 USD per gallon in INR per litre

Got to love Google for making my life so easy sometimes :)