After entering your equation, you’ll have to enter a reasonable estimate of the answer before QAMA gives up the exact result. Samson’s goal in inventing the calculator is to keep students thinking and not be overdependent on calculators.

Fortunately, the QAMA can be quite forgiving if needed. It has a normal mode where it will provide the answer outright, but the device will flash its lights while it’s in this mode, alerting the people around you of your laziness. Even in its default estimate mode, the QAMA will eventually provide the correct answer if you give an incorrect estimate five times, but not without a slight delay to urge the user to think.

Head to the QAMA website for more info on this unique calculator. Unfortunately for Mathletes the online store is down as of this writing. Maybe we need to provide a good estimate of the calculator’s price before we can buy one.

[via Reddit]

Simply replace the entire department’s regular desk calculators with one of these “special” calculators, guaranteed to miscalculate everything they key into them. To seal the deal, you might want to attach a company memo stating they they’ve all received their new calculators as a gift from the company.

The Wrongulator may look like a typical solar LCD calculator, but it’s designed to drive its users batty, by replacing all proper mathematical logic with complete and utter rubbish, providing brilliant answers like “10 + 5 = 10″.

You can get your hands on one over at UK gadget shop RED5 for £4.95 (~$7 USD). Just be sure not to let one accidentally get into the hands of the payroll department.

Nick Sayers took 630 individual wooden coffee stirrers and combined them into this awesome geometric sculpture, titled Hyperbolic Coffee Cactus. By carefully bending them into a repeated shape, then attaching them to one another with 1260 toothpicks, poked through holes drilled into the stirrers, he created this insanely complex sculpture. Here, you can see a little bit of how he pulled off this monumental feat in the detail image below:

I’m pretty awestruck at the amount of patience and precision this must have taken to pull off such a perfectly symmetrical looking work of art. I think I’ll stick to stirring my coffee and picking my teeth, and leave the sculpture to the professionals.

[via Make:]

As a novelty clock, this one is pretty cool. If you don’t remember irrational numbers, they are the numbers which can’t be represented by simple fractions. The easiest example of this is the transcendental number π.

Unfortunately other than Pi, none of the other numbers are easy to figure out unless you are a math geek. Best keep a calculator handy if you buy this one. It’s available for $39.95 (USD) from Skymall. It’s going to be a rare clock on walls, of that much I am sure.

[via GeekAlerts]

And then there’s the Unit Circle Radian Wall Clock that wants to teach you (or your kids) the basics of trigonometry.

Trigonometry was a subject that always intimidated me when I was still in high school. But when I encountered calculus and differential equations in college, well, let’s just say I wanted to go back to the days when trigonometry was my biggest problem.

If you’ve got some kids trying to learn the basics of this specific branch in mathematics, you’ll find that this wall clock might be of assistance, because printed on its face is the unit circle which can help your kid memorize or at least familiarize with the values. You know, just in case they aren’t allowed to bring in a scientific calculator during their tests or finals.

The Unit Circle Radian Wall Clock is available from Amazon for $17.99 (USD).

[via Gadgets Matrix]

I spotted this geeky Pi art over at LuxChroma’s Etsy shop, and it’s quite the thing for the math-obsessed out there. While you probably can’t use Pi in an equation to determine the size of this thing, I’ll tell you that it measures 15.5″ (w) x 15.25″ (h), and is constructed from durable PVC, with bright LED backlighting. The default version comes with green illumination, but can be requested with white, blue, red or amber LEDs too.

Mathematicians, you can grab your glowing Pi wall art over on Etsy for $65 (USD). If you’re more into computers than math, be sure to check out the glowing 5-1/4″ floppy disk or USB symbol, and Mac users will enjoy this glowing command-key symbol.

The only way I was ever able to solve one of the things was by peeling the stickers off and rearranging them. One geek in the UK liked the cube so much that he decided to make a career in mathematics just to figure out the least number of moves that the thing could be solved in. It took the guy 30-years to get that answer.

According the man, Professor Morley Davidson from Kent State University the magic number of moves is 20. Some configurations can be solved in fewer moves than that though. Apparently finding the solution involved a “good PC” and about 30 seconds for each solution with about 20 billion possible configurations.

[Cube20 via BBC News]

You can order the geek pocket watch at Uncommon Goods for $85 – ($0 x $1) + $32 -$32 (USD). I only recognize four of the twelve equations/symbols/numbers on this watch, but as I said before, you don’t really need to solve any of them because it’s a freakin’ analog clock; 2 o’clock looks like 2 o’clock regardless of the symbols. I should come up with a digital math clock; I’ll be a millionaire in no time at all. Amirite?

[via Chip Chick]

The X-Cool Calculator looks like something you might play some old Genesis or SNES games with, but it really just does basic math. The primitive 8-digit LCD screen is also good for spelling “800813S.” The guys over at Australia’s DealsDirect claim that the two-handed operation makes “calculating that much easier,” but I really have my doubts that you’ll be buying one of these if you have any serious equations to solve.

Want one? You can grab the X-Cool Calculator here for $12.95 (AUD), which works out to be about $11.50 (USD), which is actually a few bucks more than buying an old SNES controller, and a calculator and taping them together, a la FOTC’s camera phone.

[via NewLaunches]

One bead, one bead, two beads, three… it’s almost like a song! But instead it’s an homage to the famous sequence of numbers introduced to Europe by Leonardo of Pisa. And it’s the kind of thing even your non-mathy friends can admire, without even knowing what it means.

These handmade rings are simpler than they seem and are available for only $12 from the holmescraft Etsy store. If you don’t like one set of beads, fear not–you can probably find another color that suits your fancy.

“I hope that helps.” Uhm, no Matthew, it doesn’t. Or did you already know that your teacher was fond of Pokemon? You sly devil you.

[via Geekologie via the bbps]

I’d have to say that these ornaments represent the least intimidating (and most adorable) bits of math I’ve ever seen, and considering that I’m a hardcore lit geek (ugh, math hard), that’s saying a lot. It could be those little eyes, though, and those teeny-tiny smiles.

In fact, I may even prefer these ornaments to actual pie, which is maybe saying even more. But I’m also pretty sure that cute things boast zero calories. And if that’s not true? Please let me live in my state of blissful ignorance.

These coasters will match perfectly with your number lamp and your equation bookshelf, so long as all you care about is, uh, math.

The math coasters, which are available in a variety of classy colors (as pictured above), are sold in sets of five for $22. Numbers are, unfortunately, not included. It’s Etsy, though… if you search long enough, you’ll probably find something to complement your coaster set.

Perfectly at home at concerts, coffee chops, and the panels of hip webcomics–and crafter Casstasstrophie, who made these bags for a swap, happily shared the method to her math-loving madness. She made the emblem in Photoshop, which means anyone who can hack out a design can personalize to their heart’s content.

As a lit geek, I find this bag both adorable and terrifying, but Ernest Hemingway’s beard, for instance, would be completely acceptable for me. I have to check out this tutorial.

[Craftster via Geek Crafts]

So geek is ThinkGeek’s thinking that they even have a recipe for Pi-tini:

The Pi Symbol Ice Tray sells for $9 USD. If you can shake anything 3.14 times, then I salute you. You are a true nerd. Plus you have ultra-accurate muscle control.

[via UberReview]

Just punch your date of birth into Bandai’s new Human Relations Calculator, press a button, and it’ll tell you your fortune. And if you add a couple of birthdays together, you can find out what sort of a relationship you have with the other subject of your math problems. Divide, and you’ll get fortunes for your neighbors and family; subtract the dates and you’ll find out how you jive with co-workers; add ‘em and learn about your friends; or multiply and learn about your love interests.

I guess the good news in all of this hocus-pocus is that the Human Relations Calculator only works in Japanese, so you don’t have to worry about what it says – unless, of course, you happen to speak the language. There are also a handful of mini-games in case you grow tired of the forune telling shenanigans. If you’ve just got to try one of these, they’re available from Amazon Japan for ¥2885 (appx. $30 USD). There’s also a simplified web version you can play with here. It all makes perfect sense now, right?

One of the rarest bits of gadget history you can find, this beautiful specimen of the highly collectible Hewlett-Packard HP01 LED calculator watch is available for auction over on eBay. There’s just over 2 hours left in the auction so if you want to get your geek on, you’d better get your bids in fast!

The Chemist shirt would have been much better if the ladies in it looked better.

Now there’s a sad geek shirt. You know what makes it worse? One Pluto year is equivalent to 248 Earth years, but Pluto was a planet for only 76 Earth years. What? You don’t think that’s sad? I don’t care.

Shirt with G.I. Joe-ish font ftw! I know the message has a kind of anti-geek twist, but it’s still awesome.

The Pi versus i shirt succeeds in making Math fun!

And I think the T-800 Bach shirt is a fitting way to end this post. I actually can’t decide if it’s funny or not because it’s such an old joke, but… Yeah it’s still funny.

Here’s the square root watch; I guess all that’s left to say is you can get this for $40 over at SkyMall. Also,what is 8:15 in square root time?

Now this, this would be the entrance exam at a Mensa Preschool. It’s made by Triple Nine Society, and while it’s a hell of a lot more difficult than the square root watch, it’s way cheaper at $12.60. It’ll be 9:27 by the time you figure out what 8:15 is with this one.

Of course these timepieces make for fun gifts, but they’re not really really smart or geeky because even if you put the equation for black holes in place of, say, 11, I’d still know it’s 11 because it’s on the upper right hand area of the clock. Upper left hand. Lower left? Can I phone a friend?

A real geek watch would ask you for the time. Solve that.

[via walyou]

The Takumi CRASH Calculator apparently is designed to crash itself when it feels like it. Why, I don’t know.

Maybe the description from the product page will help shine some light on the manufacturer’s intentions:

Everybody has an impulse to CRASH! We seek for the excitement of crashing in this calculator. You will be driven to crashing with the unpredictable action it makes. Calculate to crash, get an answer to crash… Enjoy yourself by operating this uncontroll”

Now it all makes sense, doesn’t it? Idea Frames sells the CRASH Calculator in black, orange and light grey versions for the rather lofty price of $60 bucks a piece. And if you can believe it, they’re already so insanely popular that they’re currently sold out. I guess if you happen to have three Jacksons burning a hole in your pocket, you could buy one for the hell of it.

Just don’t try running the U.S. Treasury with one of these. I think that’s what Alan Greenspan did, and look where that got us.