~the numbers you keep looking up

Rules of Thumb

Mortgage payments, take-home pay, percentages, paint coverage, running pace, subnet ranges — and how long a bearing lasts at 1,450 rpm. The numbers you'd otherwise dig out of a textbook or a forum post, worked out properly, in your browser, free.

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Rule of the day · The Rulebook

A field heuristic, then the exact calculator

135 rules of thumb - each one linked to the tool that does the job properly.

Open the full Rulebook
Chain reactions

One answer sets off the next

Fifteen chains through the real calculators - and every link opens the next tool with the numbers already in it.

Explore the map

Thumbprint

Every area and tool as one living map - drift, hover, open.

Open the map
Live demos
Jump to a preview

Same verified physics as the full tools. Click a mini to feature it above - open the simulator for controls and scenarios.

Areas
9 tools

Environmental

The earth, the sky, and the clock - moist-air physics, solar geometry, and time across the globe.

Open Environmental
7 tools

Electrical

Circuits and magnetics - Ohm's law, power factor correction, transformer turns ratio, and wire sizing.

Open Electrical
7 tools

Control Systems

How things respond and how we steer them - feedback control and the limits of digital sampling.

Open Control Systems
7 tools

Computers

The machines themselves - storage layout, networks, and the trade-offs of keeping data safe.

Open Computers
9 tools

Physics Simulation

Real, live simulations you can nudge and watch respond - oscillation, chaos, motion under friction, and heat transfer.

Open Physics Simulation
7 tools

DIY

Hands-on reference for around the house - paint, fixings, concrete, tea, coffee, eggs, and precision timing.

Open DIY
8 tools

Mathematics

Trigonometry, a full 2D/3D geometry suite, statistics with a genuinely random Galton board, and a graphing calculator.

Open Mathematics
6 tools

Health

BMI on a full colour-coded chart, running/cycling/swimming pace, and calorie needs from a validated formula.

Open Health
Tools deepen over time. Existing areas get more polish, sources, and rules of thumb - not a rush of half-finished calculators.

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    Ranked by how many people starred each tool — one vote per browser, no account, and nothing about what you calculated.

      Questions

      About Rules of Thumb

      Is this actually free?

      Yes - every tool, no account, no paywall. There are no ads and no analytics running on this site today; see the privacy policy for exactly what that means and what would change first if that ever changes.

      How accurate are the calculators?

      Each one is built from a real, cited formula or dataset - a physics equation, an engineering standard, published statistics - not a guess. Every tool's footer names its source, and most are verified against the source's own worked examples before publishing. See Sources for the full list.

      Do you track me or store my data?

      No first-party cookies and no analytics. Calculator inputs stay in your browser. The optional Favourite star on a tool saves it for you locally and can add +1 to the public popular ranking - never the numbers you typed. See Privacy.

      Can I use this without an internet connection?

      Yes, after your first visit. The site is installable as an app on desktop and mobile, and previously visited tools keep working offline.

      Every result on this site is for reference only. Check them against other sources before relying on them for a real decision.