The Strangest Calculator Questions Ever Asked

We all know that calculators are a necessary item in our daily lives. Our lives are somewhat dependent on them. We’ve all used calculators at some point to calculate various equations. But have you ever wondered what would happen if someone typed something truly bizarre into a calculator? Some of these questions make you laugh, some make you scratch your head, and others just make you wonder what is going on in the person’s mind. There are many such questions that both blow your mind and make you laugh at the same time. In this blog, we’ll dive into some of the strangest calculator questions ever asked.

Can a calculator predict the future?

Nope, not even the fanciest scientific one. But hey, someone out there probably hoped a calculator could tell them if their crush liked them back or whether they’d pass their final exam. It’s ridiculous, though; calculators don’t do predictions; they only do math. They can’t predict the future. Unless your future depends on math… then maybe?

What happens if I divide by zero?

This one actually gets asked a lot. Try it. Your calculator will probably flash “Error” or give you a message that says “undefined.” And that’s because dividing by zero just isn’t something math allows.

The Twin Prime Conjecture

Some also find that it suggests there are endless pairs of prime numbers with a difference of 2, like (11, 13) or (17, 19).

The Travelling Salesman Problem

This problem is about finding the shortest route that lets a person visit all given cities once and return to the starting point. Many people ask this for calculators.

The Monty Hall Problem

A tricky probability puzzle from a game show setup that often surprises people with its counterintuitive outcome.

What’s the square root of a banana?

Fruit and math don’t usually mix unless you’re figuring out how many apples each person gets. But someone genuinely wanted to see what happens when you plug “banana” into a calculator. Unless it’s a calculator with a voice assistant or a joke app, the answer will be… nothing. Or maybe laughter.

How many chickens fit in a spaceship?

Not exactly your standard equation, but it’s been asked. The truth is, unless you know the size of the spaceship and the average volume of a chicken, even a calculator won’t help much.

The Riemann Hypothesis

This well-known unsolved problem in number theory deals with the pattern of prime numbers. It’s one of the Millennium Prize Problems, with a $1 million reward for solving it.

If I press 5318008 and flip it upside down, what does it say?

If you grew up in the ’90s or early 2000s, you know the upside-down calculator trick. Spelling silly words by using numbers was the ultimate way to have fun in math class without getting caught.

Diophantine Equations

These are math equations that only accept whole number (integer) solutions. Some, like the “sum of three cubes” (x³ + y³ + z³ = k), are famously tough to crack.

Can I use my calculator to talk to aliens?

Believe it or not, someone tried sending prime numbers into space using a calculator as a kind of language. While it’s an interesting idea (math is universal), calculators can’t answer it.