Learn: the calculators now explain where their math comes from

A calculator gives you one number. It doesn’t say where the math behind that number came from, why it works the way it does, or what people usually get wrong about it. That’s a different kind of page, so tinymath now has one: Learn.

Two are live so far. The inflation calculator answers “what was this worth back then” — the history behind it goes back to a 1707 dispute over a £5 Oxford scholarship, which is where someone first tried to put a single number on how much prices had moved. The tax estimate calculator deliberately uses one flat rate instead of real brackets — the learn page next to it explains why brackets exist and untangles the single most common tax myth: that earning more can push your bracket up and leave you with less money. It can’t.

Each learn page cites its sources, flags anything that isn’t fully nailed down instead of guessing, and links back to the calculator it grew out of — and the calculator links back to it. The facts stay global; where we have Malaysian numbers to add (an LHDN bracket, a DOSM index), they sit in one marked box at the end rather than running through the whole piece, so the page is useful whether or not you’re in Malaysia.

More are coming, one calculator at a time.