calc.engineer

Solve for any side of a right triangle using the Pythagorean theorem (a² + b² = c²). Provide any two of the three sides (a, b, c) and the missing side is computed. Also returns the triangle area (0.5 * a * b), perimeter, and confirms it is a right triangle. Side c is always the hypotenuse. Fundamental to surveying, construction (squaring corners), navigation (distance calculations), physics (vector decomposition), and 3D graphics. Chain with slope_calc for coordinate geometry or square_root for simplified radical answers.

Quick rack space and weight sizing calculator for homelab and small data center racks. Enter your devices with their height in rack units, weight, and wattage to get total utilization, remaining free space, weight totals in lbs and kg, and recommended PDU count based on the NEC 80% continuous load rule (1920W per 20A/120V PDU). Estimates cable management overhead at 2U per 10U of installed gear. Outputs total_watts that chains into power_cost and cooling_btu for full infrastructure planning.

Estimate RAID array IOPS performance and latency for ZFS and traditional RAID configurations. Calculates maximum read IOPS, write IOPS (accounting for write penalty/amplification per RAID level), blended IOPS for a configurable read/write workload mix, and rough per-disk latency. Supports stripe, mirror, raidz1, raidz2, and raidz3. Use with HDD IOPS (~150), SATA SSD (~50000), or NVMe SSD (~100000) to compare RAID topologies and plan storage performance for databases, VMs, media servers, and general homelab NAS workloads. Chains from zfs_capacity.data_disks for integrated capacity+performance planning.

Computes the cutoff frequency, time constant, impedance, and phase shift of a first-order RC filter. Supports both lowpass and highpass topologies. The cutoff frequency is f = 1/(2*pi*R*C) where the signal is attenuated by 3 dB. The time constant tau = R*C governs transient response — the capacitor reaches 63.2% of its final value after one tau. Use for anti-aliasing before ADCs, DC blocking, noise filtering, and signal conditioning. Chain from voltage_divider to design filtered bias networks.

Decodes 4-band or 5-band resistor color codes into resistance value, tolerance, and min/max range. Accepts an ordered array of color names (left-to-right as printed on the resistor body). Supports standard EIA color codes including gold and silver multiplier/tolerance bands. Outputs the nominal resistance in ohms, a human-readable formatted value (e.g. '4.7kΩ'), tolerance percentage, and the min/max resistance range. Chain into ohms_law or led_resistor for circuit analysis.

Converts compensation between annual salary, monthly pay, weekly pay, and hourly wage. Accepts any of the four pay periods as input and derives all others. Uses configurable hours per week (default 40) and weeks per year (default 52). Daily rate assumes an 8-hour workday; monthly is annual divided by 12. Useful for comparing job offers quoted in different pay periods, freelance rate-setting, and budgeting. Chain from sales_tax to see how many hours a purchase costs.

Calculates total cost including sales tax for a purchase. Given a unit price, tax rate percentage, and optional quantity, computes the subtotal (price times quantity), the tax amount rounded to two decimal places, and the final total. Useful for estimating purchase costs across US states and municipalities with different tax rates, comparing pre-tax and post-tax prices, and budgeting. Chain into salary_to_hourly to see how many work-hours a purchase represents.

Convert any number to scientific notation and engineering notation. Returns the coefficient, exponent, a formatted string with Unicode superscripts (e.g. '3.14 × 10²'), and engineering notation where the exponent is a multiple of 3. Useful for expressing very large or very small values compactly, common in physics, electronics (picofarads, gigahertz), and astronomy. Accepts output from sig_figs and log_calc for precision-aware formatting.

Count significant figures in a number and optionally round to N significant figures. Accepts the number as a string to preserve trailing zeros (e.g. '1.200' has 4 sig figs). Applies standard sig fig rules: leading zeros do not count, trailing zeros after a decimal point count, trailing zeros before a decimal point are treated as significant. Also returns the number in scientific notation. Essential for laboratory measurements, error analysis, and maintaining proper precision in chained calculations.

Calculate the slope, y-intercept, line equation, angle, and distance between two points in a 2D Cartesian plane. Given coordinates (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), computes slope (rise/run), y-intercept, the equation in slope-intercept form (y = mx + b), angle in degrees relative to the x-axis, and Euclidean distance. Handles vertical and horizontal lines as special cases. Useful for surveying, civil engineering grade calculations, linear regression visualization, and physics kinematics problems.

Computes LoRa link SNR margin by comparing received power against the noise floor and the spreading-factor-dependent demodulation threshold from the Semtech SX1276 datasheet. Calculates receiver noise floor from thermal noise (-174 dBm/Hz), channel bandwidth, and receiver noise figure. Returns margin in dB and a boolean link-OK indicator. Use to validate whether a LoRa or Meshtastic link will reliably decode packets. Accepts rx_power from link_budget tool output for end-to-end chain analysis.

Calculates total daily energy consumption from an appliance list — the critical first step before sizing solar panels or batteries. Enter each appliance with its wattage, hours of daily use, and quantity. Outputs total daily kWh (with configurable safety margin for surge and inrush current), peak simultaneous wattage, and recommended inverter VA rating per NEC 125% continuous load rule. Feeds directly into solar_sizing (daily_kwh) and battery_autonomy (daily_kwh). Essential for residential, RV, cabin, and off-grid system design.

Calculates solar system return on investment, payback period, and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Models year-by-year savings accounting for panel degradation, utility rate inflation, federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), state rebates, and annual maintenance. Outputs net cost after incentives, payback year, total lifetime savings, ROI percentage, and LCOE in cents/kWh. Essential for residential and commercial solar financial analysis, installer proposals, and comparing solar vs. grid economics over a 25-year system lifetime.

Sizes an off-grid solar power system by calculating the number of panels and battery bank capacity required for a given daily energy consumption. Accounts for system losses (inverter, wiring, charge controller), battery depth-of-discharge, and autonomy days for cloudy weather. Outputs panel count, total panel wattage, battery capacity in kWh and Ah, and minimum charge controller amperage (with 25% safety margin per NEC 690.8). Supports 12V, 24V, and 48V system architectures. Use for cabin, RV, telecom tower, and remote IoT deployments.

Run a SPICE circuit simulation directly in the worker. Accepts a standard SPICE netlist and performs operating-point (.op), DC sweep (.dc), AC frequency sweep (.ac), or transient (.tran) analysis using a built-in modified-nodal-analysis engine with Newton-Raphson nonlinear solving. Supports R, L, C, V, I sources (DC/AC/SIN/PULSE), diodes, BJTs (Ebers-Moll), MOSFETs (Shichman-Hodges level 1), controlled sources (E/G), .param expressions, .subckt/X hierarchical subcircuits, .measure and .four (Fourier/THD), and a built-in parts library (reference 2n3904/2n2222/1n4148/1n5819/2n7000/tl072/lm358/led_red etc. by name and the model is auto-injected), up to 150 components. Returns voltage vectors for all circuit nodes (magnitude + phase for AC). Use spice_template to generate netlists from parameterized templates.

Generate a complete SPICE netlist from a parameterized template. Supports common circuit topologies: low-pass RC filter, voltage divider, common emitter amplifier. Returns a ready-to-simulate netlist string that can be passed directly to spice_simulate. Use this when an agent needs to construct a circuit from high-level parameters without writing raw SPICE syntax. Feeds into spice_simulate for AC/DC/transient analysis.

Calculates area and perimeter for common shapes — rectangle, circle, or triangle — in both imperial and metric units. Returns area in square feet, square meters, and acres, plus perimeter in feet and meters. For rectangles: area = length * width, perimeter = 2*(length + width). For circles: area = pi * r^2, perimeter = 2 * pi * r. For triangles: area = 0.5 * base * height, perimeter approximated as base + height + sqrt(base^2 + height^2). Useful for real estate, flooring, landscaping, and construction estimates.

Compute the square root of a non-negative number. Returns the decimal result, whether the input is a perfect square, and a simplified radical form (e.g. '√12' simplifies to '2√3'). For integer inputs, factors are extracted from under the radical sign. Useful for geometry (diagonal/hypotenuse calculations), statistics (standard deviation from variance), signal processing (RMS values), and general algebra. Chain with pythagorean_theorem for triangle side calculations.

Calculates optimal solar panel string and MPPT configuration based on panel electrical specs, inverter/charge-controller MPPT limits, and site temperature extremes. Applies temperature coefficients to determine Voc at minimum temperature (cold) and Vmp at maximum temperature (hot), then computes the safe range of panels per string, maximum parallel strings, and total array wattage. Prevents over-voltage damage in winter and under-voltage MPPT dropout in summer. Essential for NEC 690.7 compliant residential and commercial solar design.

Calculate IPv4 subnet details from CIDR notation. Parses a CIDR block (e.g. 192.168.1.0/24) and returns the network address, broadcast address, subnet mask, wildcard mask, first and last usable host addresses, total and usable host counts, prefix length, and classful IP class (A/B/C/D/E). Essential for homelab network planning, VLAN segmentation, firewall rule design, and understanding address space allocation. Handles special cases for /31 point-to-point links (RFC 3021) and /32 host routes.

Calculate maximum TCP throughput using the Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP) formula. Given link bandwidth and round-trip latency, computes the BDP (maximum in-flight data), achievable throughput with a given TCP window size, link utilization percentage, and recommended window size for full utilization. Critical for diagnosing slow transfers over high-latency links (WAN, VPN, satellite), tuning TCP buffers, and understanding why a 1Gbps link may only deliver 25Mbps with default 64KB windows. Applies to iperf testing, WAN optimization, and network capacity planning.

Calculates a test or exam grade from the number of correct answers and total questions. Returns the percentage score, letter grade, points missed, and GPA points. Supports US grading (A/B/C/D/F with 4.0 GPA scale), UK grading (First/2:1/2:2/Third/Fail), and percentage-only mode. US thresholds: A>=90, B>=80, C>=70, D>=60, F<60. UK thresholds: First>=70, 2:1>=60, 2:2>=50, Third>=40, Fail<40. Useful for students checking scores and teachers computing class statistics.

Estimate steady-state thermal behaviour of a rectangular enclosure (server rack, electronics housing, equipment cabinet) using a lumped-parameter energy balance with natural-convection and radiation correlations, or forced-flow air energy balance. Accepts enclosure dimensions, heat source positions and wattages, and airflow configuration. Returns temperature extremes, estimated hotspot location, airflow velocity summary, and overall thermal resistance. Runs instantly in-worker; a full CFD container backend is planned for mesh-level detail.

Calculates timing parameters for the ubiquitous NE555 / LM555 timer IC in astable (free-running oscillator) and monostable (one-shot pulse) modes. In astable mode, computes frequency, period, duty cycle, and HIGH/LOW durations from R1, R2, and C using f = 1.44 / ((R1 + 2·R2) · C). In monostable mode, computes pulse width from R and C using t = 1.1 · R · C. Standard 555 astable duty cycle is always >50%; for 50% duty cycle use a diode across R2. Useful for generating clock signals, PWM, delays, and debounce circuits. Chain from ohms_law for power calculations or resistor_color_code for component selection.

Convert between Unix timestamps and human-readable date/time formats. Accepts Unix epoch (in seconds or milliseconds), ISO 8601 strings, or 'now' for the current time. Returns both Unix seconds and milliseconds, ISO 8601 UTC string, date and time components, day of the week, relative time description ('2 hours ago'), and past/future indicator. Auto-detects whether a numeric input is seconds or milliseconds based on magnitude. Essential for debugging logs, API timestamps, cron scheduling, and time zone conversions.

Calculate tip and split a restaurant bill among multiple people. Given a bill amount, tip percentage, and number of diners, returns the tip amount, total with tip, per-person share, and effective tip percentage. Supports rounding up to the nearest whole number for convenience. Defaults to 18% tip for 1 person. Currency-agnostic — works with any monetary unit.

Calculates the minimum PCB trace width for a given current using the IPC-2221 standard formula. The IPC-2221 empirical equation relates current capacity to cross-sectional area and temperature rise: I = k * dT^0.44 * A^0.725, where k=0.048 for external layers and k=0.024 for internal layers. Supports configurable copper weight (oz/ft^2) and temperature rise. Also computes approximate DC resistance per centimeter. Essential for power delivery, high-current motor drivers, and ensuring PCB reliability. Chain from voltage_divider or impedance_match to verify trace sizing for computed currents.

Convert between units across 10 categories: length (m, km, mi, ft, in, yd, nmi), mass (kg, lb, oz, g, ton), volume (l, gal, ml, cup, fl_oz), area (m2, ft2, acre, hectare), speed (mps, kph, mph, knot), pressure (pa, psi, bar, atm, mmhg), energy (j, kwh, btu, cal, wh), data (b, kb, mb, gb, tb), time (s, ms, min, hr, day, year), and temperature (c, f, k). Accepts any value with source and target unit abbreviations. Returns the converted result with the formula used.

Estimates UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) backup runtime from battery specifications and connected load. Takes VA rating, watt rating, load in watts, and battery configuration (count, voltage, amp-hours) to compute effective stored energy after efficiency losses and runtime in minutes and hours. Detects overload conditions when load exceeds the UPS watt rating. Calculates power factor from VA/W ratings. Ideal for server rack planning, homelab power budgeting, network closet UPS selection, and graceful shutdown timer configuration.

Calculates output voltage, current draw, and power dissipation for a resistive voltage divider. Given an input voltage Vin and two resistor values R1 (upper) and R2 (lower), computes Vout = Vin * R2 / (R1 + R2), divider current, individual resistor power dissipation, and the division ratio. Essential for biasing circuits, level shifting, ADC input scaling, and feedback networks. Use before trace_width to size traces for divider current, or chain from a power supply output to verify signal levels.

Calculates voltage drop across a conductor run given current, wire length, AWG gauge, system voltage, and conductor material (copper or aluminum). Computes round-trip resistance, voltage drop in volts and percent, voltage at the load end, power dissipated in the wire, and NEC compliance flags (3% max for branch circuits, 5% max for feeders). Use this after wire_gauge to verify a specific gauge meets requirements, or to evaluate an existing installation. Critical for solar panel string wiring, EV charger circuits, low-voltage lighting, and any long DC or AC cable run where resistive losses matter.

Convert between VSWR, return loss, and reflection coefficient — provide any one parameter and get all related impedance-mismatch metrics. Computes VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio), return loss in dB, reflection coefficient (gamma), mismatch loss, and percentage of power reflected vs transmitted. Essential for antenna matching, transmission line analysis, and RF system budgeting. Feeds into link_budget for system-level mismatch accounting.

Converts electrical power in watts to current in amps (and milliamps) for a given voltage, using the DC power formula P = V * I. Also computes the implied load resistance via Ohm's law (R = V / I) assuming a purely resistive load. This is the most common electrical conversion for circuit design, fuse selection, wire sizing, and breaker rating. Use the output amps value to feed into wire_gauge for conductor sizing or voltage_drop for cable loss analysis. Covers DC circuits; for AC with power factor, adjust watts to true power first.

Convert between radio frequency and wavelength. Provide either frequency in MHz or wavelength in metres, and get the full set of equivalent values: frequency in MHz and GHz, wavelength in metres, centimetres, millimetres, and feet. Essential for antenna dimensioning, waveguide selection, and quick band identification. The fundamental relationship is lambda = c / f where c is the speed of light (299 792 458 m/s).

Determine minimum wire gauge using NEC Table 310.16 ampacity ratings with full derating. Looks up base ampacity for copper or aluminum conductors at 60°C, 75°C, or 90°C insulation rating, then applies NEC 310.15(C)(1) ambient temperature correction and NEC 310.15(C)(2) conductor count adjustment. Automatically applies the 125% continuous load factor per NEC 210.20(A) when flagged. Returns the minimum AWG that meets the derated requirement, plus a comparison table of all gauges. Different from wire_gauge which focuses on voltage drop — use both together for complete wire sizing. Essential for residential panels, commercial feeders, solar arrays, and EV charging installations.

Determines the minimum AWG (American Wire Gauge) conductor size for a given current, voltage, one-way cable distance, and maximum allowable voltage drop percentage. Supports copper and aluminum conductors. Computes round-trip resistance, actual voltage drop in volts and percent, and wire cross-sectional area. Essential for DC solar runs, battery bank wiring, EV charging circuits, and low-voltage landscape lighting. NEC recommends 3% max drop for branch circuits and 5% total including feeder. Outputs the smallest AWG that satisfies the drop constraint.

Calculate the optimal MTU for a WireGuard VPN tunnel interface with a detailed overhead breakdown. Accounts for WireGuard header (32 bytes), outer IP header (20 bytes IPv4 or 40 bytes IPv6), UDP header (8 bytes), and optional PPPoE encapsulation (8 bytes). Prevents fragmentation and PMTUD black holes by computing the maximum inner packet size that fits within the physical link MTU. Essential for WireGuard setup on residential ISP connections (PPPoE), IPv6 tunnels, and any VPN where incorrect MTU causes slow or stalled connections.

Calculate usable ZFS pool capacity for any RAID level including stripe, mirror, raidz1, raidz2, and raidz3. Computes raw capacity, parity overhead, data disk count, usable terabytes after ZFS metadata overhead (checksums, block pointers, uberblocks), and storage efficiency percentage. Essential for planning NAS builds, TrueNAS/ZFS server storage, and estimating how much usable space a given disk configuration will provide. Supports variable disk sizes and configurable metadata overhead.

Calculate recommended RAM and ARC sizing for a ZFS storage pool based on workload type, pool size, deduplication status, and L2ARC cache size. Computes minimum and recommended RAM in gigabytes, ARC target size, and dedup table overhead. Accounts for workload-specific IO patterns: NAS (sequential, 1GB/TB), database (random, 2GB/TB), virtualization (mixed, 1.5GB/TB). Deduplication adds approximately 5GB per TB for the DDT. L2ARC index requires 1GB RAM per 10GB of L2ARC. Essential for TrueNAS, FreeNAS, and custom ZFS server builds.