The Mathematics block does a mathematics calculation on its inputs, and outputs the result. You can do a simple mathematics operation with one or two inputs, or enter a formula with up to four inputs.

Choose the Mathematics Operation

Mode Selector

Inputs

Output

Choose the mathematics operation you want to use by selecting a mode with the Mode Selector. After selecting the mode, you can choose values for the inputs. The inputs available will change depending on the mode.

Simple Mathematics Operation Modes

The simple mathematics operation modes calculate the Result with a single mathematics operation using one or two Inputs. These modes are shown in the table below.

Mode	Inputs Used	Output Result
Add	A, B	A + B
Subtract	A, B	A – B
Multiply	A, B	A × B
Divide	A, B	A ÷ B
Absolute Value	A	A if A ≥ 0 -A if A < 0 The result is always ≥ 0.
Square Root	A	√A
Exponent	A (base), N (Exponent)	A^N
Advanced	A, B, C, D	A + B – C* D

Tips and Tricks

If the input values for a mathematics operation result in an illegal operation, such as division by zero or the square root of a negative number, the output result will be an error value. An error value may be interpreted as zero when used as the input for another programming block.

Example

This program subtracts 50 from the Reflected Light Intensity output of the Colour Sensor block and uses the result as a Power input for a motor. This will make the motor turn backwards when the colour sensor sees something dark and forwards when the sensor sees something light.

Advanced Mode

In the Advanced mode, the Mathematics block can calculate a mathematical expression using up to four inputs and several mathematics operations in one step.

Use Data Wires to connect up to four Numeric values to the A, B, C, and D inputs. Unneeded inputs can be left blank or 0.

Click the Block Text Field at the top of the block to enter the mathematical expression in text form to calculate. The expression can include the inputs by name as “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D”, numeric constants such as “50”, and mathematics symbols such as “+”. You can also use functions from the list displayed and additional parenthesis to change the order of operations.

The result of the expression calculation is output in Result.

Example

In this program the Mathematics block calculates motor power using inputs from the Colour Sensor and two Variables. The Reflected Light Intensity from the Colour Sensor is wired to the A input, and the variables named “Gain” and “Power” are used for B and C. The expression “(A-50)*B+C” in the Mathematics block subtracts 50 from the light intensity, multiplies the result by value of “Gain”, and then adds the value of “Power”.

Inputs and Outputs

The inputs of the Mathematics block provide the values for the mathematics calculation. You can enter the input values directly into the block. Alternatively, the input values can be supplied by Data Wires from the outputs of other Programming Blocks.

Inputs	Type	Notes
A	Numeric	First operand of a simple mathematics operation
B	Numeric	Second operand of a simple mathematics operation
A	Numeric	Base value in Exponent mode
N	Numeric	Exponent value in Exponent mode
C	Numeric	Input for Advanced mode
D	Numeric	Input for Advanced mode

The output of the Mathematics block gives the result of the calculation. To use the output, use a Data Wire to connect it to another Programming Block.

Mathematics Block