Calcumber Documentation

Learn the essentials of Calcumber through interactive examples. This page introduces the most important features, while the linked reference pages provide complete documentation on units, functions, constants, and thermodynamic fluid properties.

Contents

Basic Calculations

Variables and Previous Results

Units

Constants

Numbers and Precision

Fluid Properties

More Topics

Examples

Units

List of Constants

Functions

Fluid Properties Documentation

Installing Calcumber

Basic Calculations

Type a mathematical expression and Calcumber evaluates it instantly.
All examples on this page are interactive. Modify the input and see the results update immediately.

3*4 / (2 + 4) 2
2^7 - 1 127
sqrt(3^2 + 4^2) 5

To make calculations easier to read, you can add comments before a colon :. Everything before the colon is ignored during evaluation.

basic calculations:   3*4 / (2 + 4) 2
highest 7-bit value:  2^7 - 1 127
triangle:             sqrt(3^2 + 4^2) 5

Calcumber also ignores any text that is not part of a valid expression. This lets you write natural comments directly inside your calculations. Alternatively, start a comment with #.

=== Comments in Calcumber ===  
2.5^2 * 3         # approximately 18.75
2.5^2 * 3.14      # more precise 19.625
2.5^2 * pi        # highest precision 19.6350
   
We don't always need full precision.  

Comments remain part of the shared calculation, making it easy to document your work and explain it to others.

Variables and Previous Results

Every result is automatically stored in the variable ans. This allows you to continue a calculation without retyping the previous result.

2 * 6 12
ans + 8  # reuse previous result 20

For larger calculations, define named variables. They make formulas easier to read and allow you to change input values without modifying the calculations themselves.

Line definition:  
slope:  a = 3 3
offset: b = 2 2
   
Point 1:  
x1 = 7 7
y1 = a*x1 + b 23
   
Point 2:  
x2 = 12 12
y2 = a*x2 + b 38
   
Distance between points:  
Δx = x2 - x1 5
Δy = y2 - y1 15
distance = sqrt(Δx^2 + Δy^2) 15.8114

Units

Using units makes your calculations more readable and reliable. Calcumber automatically converts compatible units, and if a result cannot be converted to the expected unit, the formula is dimensionally inconsistent — often revealing an error before it goes unnoticed.

The example below demonstrates requested unit conversion using to L or in s and how litre cancelles out during calculation.

Filling a Bathtub  
=================  
Water volume:     V = 190 cm * 50 cm * 20 cm  to L 190 L
Water flow rate:  q = 17 L/min 17 L/min
Time to fill:     t = V / q 11.1765 min
In seconds:       ans  in s 670.588 s

In the example above, each unit is surrounded by spaces: one between the number and the unit, and another before the following operator. These spaces mark where the unit begins and ends. Without them, Calcumber may not recognize the unit. For example, m written directly after a number is interpreted as the multiplier milli (0.001).

Spaces around unit:    7 m + 3 m 10 m
Not recognized:        7 m+3 m  
Interpreted as milli:  7m+3m 0.01

Constants

Calcumber includes many predefined mathematical and physical constants that can be used directly in calculations. Examples include pi, e, the speed of light c, standard gravity g, and the molar gas constant R.

pi 3.1415927
e     # Euler's number 2.7182818
c     # speed of light 2.9979246e8 m/s
g     # standard gravity 9.80665 m/s2
R     # molar gas constant 8.3144626 J/(mol*K)
eps0  # vacuum permittivity 8.8541878e-12 F/m
mu0   # vacuum permeability 1.2566371e-6 N/A2

See the full list of predefined variables and constants and use these in your calculations:

How long does light travel from the Sun to the Earth?  
Distance:  d = 150M km 1.5e8 km
Time:      t = d / c 500.346 s

Numbers and Precision

Large and small numbers can be entered using the standard exponential notation such as 2.5e6 for 2.5 million. As a convenient alternative, Calcumber also accepts multiplier prefixes such as k, M, G, m, and µ (u). They can be written immediately after the number (2.5M) or even in place of the decimal point (2M5).

2.5e6 2.5e6
2.5M 2.5e6
2M5 2.5e6
   
0.123 0.123
123e-3 0.123
123m 0.123

See the complete list of multiplier prefixes.

By default, Calcumber switches to exponential notation for numbers with an exponent of 6 or greater, or -6 or smaller. You can change this threshold by assigning a new value to the variable _exp_th.

_exp_th = 3 3
1000 1e3
999 999
   

Assign a new value to _digits to control the number of significant digits in Calcumber's output. The default is six digits.

_digits = 3 3
pi 3.14

Fluid Properties

Calcumber can calculate thermodynamic fluid properties using the integrated CoolProp library. Load a fluid such as water, air, nitrogen, propane, or a refrigerant and calculate properties like density, enthalpy, entropy, viscosity, thermal conductivity, saturation pressure, and vapor quality.

This makes it possible to include real fluid-property calculations directly in engineering formulas, for example for heat pumps, refrigeration cycles, steam generation, air flows, or hydraulic heating circuits.

load fluid water 1
h(1 bar, 20 °C) 84.006054 kJ/kg
h(4 bar, 160 °C) 2775.1891 kJ/kg
rho(1 bar, 20 °C) 998.20654 kg/m3

See the Fluid Properties documentation for loading fluids, defining thermodynamic states, temperature conversion, two-phase calculations, and larger examples.