Since I'm still not sure what exactly I want this to be (this = this website) I figured I'd just try a TIL post.


There are times when you want to calculate something quickly and don't want to use your brain. (20 / 16, anyone?)

You're on your laptop, so different solutions open up:

  1. use the OS's calculator (does anyone do that?)
  2. take out a physical calculator out of the top right drawer of your desk if you're the kind of person to keep a physical calculator in the top right drawer of your desk
  3. ask Google

I usually go for solution 3, BUT:

Chrome has this cool thing where typing "20 / 16" in the address bar gives you the answer immediately. Unfortunately Firefox doesn't (still it's in many other ways a superior browser, in my opinion that you haven't asked for), so I have to actually search for the result of 20 / 16. That's slower, plus I don't actually want to know what 20/16 vision means.

(This is where we get to the TIL section.)

Turns out that the feature also exists in Firefox! It's just disabled by default.

To enable it, go to about:config, accept the risk, search for "calculator" and toggle browser.​urlbar.​suggest.​calculator to true.

Done! Now you can simply type "20 / 16" in the Firefox address bar and you'll have your answer.

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