Engineering Calculator
Professional engineering calculations for pressure, torque, stress, force, and more. Precision tools for engineers and technical professionals.
Expresses mechanical stress in megapascals (MPa), the SI unit used in international engineering standards (ISO, EN, AS).
1 MPa = 1 N/mm² = 1,000,000 Pa. Convert from psi: psi × 0.00689476 = MPa. Typical structural steel: 250 MPa yield; high-strength: 690 MPa.
The safety factor concept dates to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who routinely over-engineered Victorian bridges by 3–4× to account for material variability — a principle still used in codes like ASME and Eurocode today.
Confusing MPa with kPa or GPa. Young's modulus for steel is ~200 GPa (200,000 MPa) — expressing it in MPa and using it as GPa in a deflection formula gives deflection 1,000× too large.