Instacalc
Instacalc is a very different kind of currency converter. It is in fact several different types of conversion tool and calculator rolled into one.
Instacalc is a trade mark and it is a contraction of instant calculator. It will perform pretty much any kind of calculation (barring outright scientific) and the calculations can be written almost in plain English rather than just in symbols (+ / - * etc.)
On top of that, the rows that make up the input area of the calculator can be used like a program to store variables; perform calculations and then return results. Basically the creators say that coming to their website to perform such operations is faster and easier than opening Excel or another spreadsheet.
The results appear as you type too. It really is instant. If you need more rows you can add them too.
So how does it work as a currency converter. 'Very well' is the answer.
You can input simple statements for simple conversions, like this:
$100 USD in EUR
or
100 USD in Euro
The results appear to the right of the row (or the box, if you prefer to think of it like that) box in which you have typed
For currency conversions it is easiest to use the 3 letter country code. Typing a full English sentence like this:
100 US Dollars in Euro
does not work.
Quite simply because there are so many different currencies called “Dollars” and on a local basis the country name is rarely used. An Australian, a Canadian and a Barbadian would all just call their local currency “Dollars.” Using the 3 letter country code removes any ambiguity.
As mentioned previously the calculator can perform a more complicated currency transaction.
E.g. If you wanted to use £10,000 GBP to buy Swiss bonds, and then take the Swiss bonds and use them for collateral to borrow 5 times as much in Japanese Yen, you can see how that would work out by doing the following
It doesn't matter where you multiply by 5 before or after converting to CHF (as multiplication of numbers greater than 1 is cumulative) so you can simply put this in row one:
50000 GBP in CHF – lets assume the answer to that is 115,000 CHF. In the next row you type in:
115,000 CHF in JPY – the answer will be the result in Japanese Yen.
It is true to say that this type of example can be performed using most currency calculators, but this one presents two related advantages: first of all the result from the first calculation stay on the page where you can see them (in case you make a mistake when retyping) secondly the page does not reload to perform a calculation. It appears instantly. Sometimes when a page reloads you have to reorient yourself and it can be a bit tricky to keep numbers in your head whilst doing that.
Here you can see it all in one go, without any page reloads. It just stays in front of you exactly where it was the last time you looked.
Very useful tool for both currency and other calculations.
Rating (out of 5 stars):
- 4 Stars
Link: http://instacalc.com