Calcatraz Quick Start Guide

Calcatraz is a free online calculator which offers both basic calculation functionality and more advanced features. This quick start guide gives an overview of some of the things you can do with Calcatraz.

Introduction

Note: Calcatraz is very new and is still limited in what it can do. However, it is being improved on a daily basis. If you come across something Calcatraz can’t do, please try it again at a later date – we’ll try to have it implemented for you by then.

Calcatraz is an online calculator which is free to use. It is simple to use and provides answers to a broad range of calculations. Calculations can be entered naturally in plain English (or math notation, of course), so there is no need to learn anything specific to use it.

Entering a Calculation

Calcatraz is designed to take the calculations you type in and produce the correct answer. The aim is that you should be able to enter calculations in the way that is most natural to you. There’s no need to learn anything to use it – just type in the calculation as you would say it.

To perform a calculation just type it in wherever you see the Calcatraz calculation box, such as here:

 

When you click calculate you will be taken to the main calculation page which shows both the answer and a list of any calculations you have performed so far.

To try it out enter your own calculation or try one of these:

what is 5*5? | 100kg in pounds | 2*(1+1)^3 | what is the golden ratio?

Using Calcatraz is really that easy.

Creating Rules

Sometimes you may find yourself wanting to do something that hasn’t yet been added to Calcatraz. For this you can create your own rules.

Rules help you simplify common calculations. For example, you might want to create a rule which lets you calculate the number of seconds in a given numbers of days. To do so, enter the following in to the Calcatraz calculation box:

seconds in X days => X*24*60*60

 

This creates the rule. You can now use it in calculations. For example, the following in the calculation box:

seconds in 365 days

This will let you use your rule to find out the number of seconds in a year. You can also use your rule in more complex calculations. To find the number of minutes in an 80 year lifetime, enter:

(seconds in 365*80 days) / 60

The main thing to know about the format of rules is that anything unknown MUST be in capitals (and don’t use capitals anywhere else. They can be any capitialized word you like. The following are examples of valid rules:

X miles in km => X * 1.609344

my interest after NUM years => £1000@5% for Y years

There is literally no limit to the ways in which rules can be used to extend the capabilities of Calcatraz.