Knowledge Base Article

## Introduction to Equations

For most people, equations and formulas give you an answer to a math related question:

• How many apples will fit in a basket?                          "apples" = "vBasket / vApple"
• How much is 10% of my dinner tab?                            tip = 0.1 * tab
• What is the value of the gold in my ring?                     value = weight * purity * SPOT
• How much fuel do I need to go eighty kilometers?    fuel = "80 km / (35km/litre)"

Equations are used to compute an answer based on what’s known.  Sometimes the answers are estimates and sometimes they are precise.

At vCalc, we have created a platform for people to use equations from our public library to help answer these questions, and we have also created the means for people around the world to contribute new equations to the library in a way that is helping more and more people benefit from power of a simple equation.

The following articles are meant to help you build your own equations in vCalc.  But first some ground rules:

1. All vCalc content, including equations, must comply with vCalc’s Terms of Use
2. All vCalc content created by you is private and only viewable by you or a vCalc system administrator unless you choose to share it with other vCalc colleagues or with the general public.

vCalc is designed to help people.  With your help, powerful tools can be made for the public.  With this in mind, we encourage you to do the following:

• Make equations that are useful to you, but share them whenever possible.
• Feel free to copy the work of others and customize it to your needs.
• Consider publishing your work (documenting it) in as many languages as you speak.  It’s a small world on the Internet and you’ll be helping people who otherwise may never get help.

When you can create an equation in vCalc, your creation will automatically inherit numerous powerful attributes:

• Equations you create in vCalc will be stored on the cloud and available to you any time you’re on the web.
• The equations you create are instantly deployed in a calculator, an automatically generated wiki page and in a mobile library.
• Your automatically created wiki page is a great place to document your equation with descriptions, graphics and links to related items.
• You can share your equations with your social network (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) with the click of a button.
• You can duplicate the math done by others as a good starting point for your math.
• You can employee vCalc’s unit handling (e.g. feet, kilograms, volts) in your equations and see how one equation is now useful in hundreds of different situations when vCalc automatically translates input and output parameters to and from different units.
• You can bundle your equations in your own custom calculator, your own custom compilations of equations and constants with just the math that you need.

Last thing, vCalc is here to help!  If you have questions or need assistance, click on “Contact US” link and let us know how we can help.

### Equation Help Topics

The equation help topics include the following:

For a complete tutorial showing how to build a vCalc Equation, you can also watch a YouTube video by clicking HERE.