Conversions & units in CALCULA
This field gathers three families of transformations: number bases, physical units, and classical ciphers, kept for teaching and for fun.
Number bases
In base 2 each column is worth twice the previous one; in base 16, sixteen times. Hexadecimal writes bytes compactly — one byte fits in two hex digits (00 to FF), hence its use for colours (#FF8800).
Physical units
CALCULA converts lengths, masses, volumes, energies, pressures, temperatures and more. Watch out for temperature: Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin share neither origin nor step, so the conversion is not a simple factor.
Example
A difference of 1 °C is exactly 1 K but 1.8 °F; a temperature of 0 °C is 273.15 K and 32 °F.
Classical ciphers
The Caesar, Vigenère and Atbash ciphers offered here are historical: reversible, trivial to break, perfect for a puzzle but worthless as security. They illustrate the difference between encoding (reversible without a key) and encrypting (reversible with a secret key).
Typing it into CALCULA
“≡” menu → conversions: choose the family (bases, units, cipher), then enter the value and the starting unit or base. See also number theory.