Your calculation
((2 * 2.12) * (0.657)) - ((3 * 2.97) * (0.657^2))
which results in -384320691 can be rewritten as
2 * 2.12 * 0.657 - 3 * 2.97 * 0.657 ^ 2
All the parentheses are redundant: power has the highest precedence, followed by multiplication, addition comes last.
If you replace ^ by y you can just copy'n'past it into the calculator, the return key gives the result, alternatively you can add the equals sign before the transfer, like in the following line:
2 * 2.12 * 0.657 - 3 * 2.97 * 0.657 y 2 =
As to speed-up casual calculator usage, it pays off to learn a few keyboard shortcuts, the most important for every-day use are
- 0 ... 9 for the digits
- decimal point
.
- usual operators
+,-, *, /
- parentheses
(,)
= or Enter key giving the result
Other shortcuts that do a great job for me include n for the natural logarithm (the combination with n/2n gives me the dual logarithm, mostly I have to hit enter before that). Also helpful are Esc for the C button or Ctrl+M store (MS) and Ctrl+R recall (MR).
Be careful
There are some false friends like ^, because these are ignored and turn 2^20 silently into 220, so be careful, to not confuse the windows calculator with your favourite programming language.
The official documentation is included here (no direct anchor avail):
Keyboard shortcuts in Windows apps - Windows Help
Another ref (in case Microsoft moves their content without adding a redirect):
Windows 7 Calculator Keyboard Shortcuts - printable cheatsheet
Finally
The probably least helpful Shortcut is F1, because it misses to even mention that there are keyboard shortcuts. (This seems to depend on the Windows version, as I recall that this changed from Win XP to Win 8.1)
