Tony Aldon has another quick video up that considers using Org-mode table formulae in the minibuffer. It’s a nice way of trying out a formula or even using them to make calculations and inserting the results into the current buffer.
The video, Calc formulas, all you need to know, uses the “quick-calc” mode of Calc to do its calculations. You can invoke quick-calc either by calling it with Meta+x quick-calc or by starting calc as usual with Ctrl+x * and specifying q instead of c. The advantage of quick-calc for non-Lispers is that you can enter the formula in infix notation if you prefer. In any event, all the action takes place in the minibuffer and returns to the current buffer after a single calculation.
After the calculation, the result is left in the kill ring so you can insert it into the buffer with Ctrl+y but there are a couple of other ways to do it as the video shows. Even if you aren’t a Lipser, you can use quick-calc as a handy calculator so it’s worth taking the time to watch the video. The video itself is only 3 minutes, 45 seconds long so it’s easy to schedule time to watch it.