The PhDino Faculty
Maintained by the PhDino author · Last reviewed 21 September 2026
Every field on PhDino has a presenter: a pixel-art dinosaur whose portrait greets you in each of that field's calculators and on its pages. Together with a Dean, who looks after how the site is checked, and a Librarian, who looks after the reading, they make up the faculty below.
They are characters, drawn and named for the site, and they do not change a single number: the calculators are tested exactly as the Methodology page describes. What each of them adds is a voice and one tip about their subject: a plain statement you can check on that field's calculator pages, never a made-up number.
Dean Ptera
Formal, a little proud, and obsessed with checking.
Presents: The About and Methodology pages and the corrections log.
“Every calculator here is tested automatically before it ships, most of them against reference cases worked out independently.” — Dean Ptera
Prof. Folio
Warm, well-read, always pointing you to the next page.
Presents: The Library: every article, the related topics, the project guides and the bookshelf.
“Where a page has a worked example, read it first: every number in it comes from a real run of the calculator.” — Prof. Folio
Chief Rebar
Practical site engineer, blueprint always in hand. Distrusts anything that bounces.
Presents: Beams, columns, footings, connections, concrete, masonry, drainage and earthworks.
“Double a beam's span and, under the same uniform load, it sags sixteen times as much.” — Chief Rebar
Beam Deflection · Column Buckling · Footing Design · Concrete Strength · Steel Connection · Truss Analysis · Moment Distribution · Stress Concentration · Concrete Mix Design · Concrete Volume · Rebar Sizing · Masonry Block Count · Asphalt Thickness · Excavation Volume · Stormwater Runoff · Culvert Flow · Soil Compaction Check
Foreman Dig
Weathered foreman who has seen walls fail. Talks about soil like an old friend who can't be trusted.
Presents: Soil bearing, retaining walls, slope stability, piles and settlement.
“Soil under a footing doesn't crush straight down: it fails by sliding along curved surfaces out to the sides.” — Foreman Dig
Soil Bearing Capacity · Slope Stability · Consolidation Settlement · Pile Capacity · Retaining Wall
Enzo Fanali
Workshop veteran in overalls. Loves a good shaft and hates sharp corners.
Presents: Torsion, fatigue, bearing stress, gears, motors, pipe flow and HVAC.
“Make a shaft twice the diameter and it becomes sixteen times stiffer in twist.” — Enzo Fanali
Pipe Flow · HVAC Cooling · Bearing Stress · Gear Ratio · Motor Sizing · Fatigue Analysis · Torsion
Prof. Trace
Patient triceratops at the terminal. Explains current like water, then admits where the analogy breaks.
Presents: Ohm's law, voltage drop, cable sizing, transformers and power.
“Double the current in a wire and it makes four times the heat.” — Prof. Trace
Ohm's Law · Transformer Sizing · Cable Sizing · Power Calculation · Voltage Drop
Byte Rex
A green T-rex hacker with tiny arms and fast fingers. Counts in powers of two.
Presents: Bit width, Karnaugh maps, gates, adders, clocks and memory.
“Each extra address line doubles the memory a chip can reach.” — Byte Rex
Bit Width & Parity · Karnaugh Map Position Finder · Boolean Function Counter · Minterm Decoder · Logic Gate Propagation Delay · Addressable Memory · Half/Full Adder · Clock Frequency & Duty Cycle · Flip-Flop Setup/Hold Margin
Sunny Watts
Optimist with a spreadsheet. Always asks what happens on the cloudy days.
Presents: Solar arrays, batteries, inverters, charge controllers, wind and payback.
“Size an off-grid battery for the darkest week, not the average one: it has to carry you through it.” — Sunny Watts
Solar Array Sizing · Solar Payback Period · Battery Bank Sizing · Inverter Sizing · Charge Controller Sizing · Off-Grid Autonomy · Net Metering Savings · Wind Turbine Output · Panel Tilt Angle
Dr. Ione
Precise, dry humour, round glasses. Labels everything twice.
Presents: pH, molarity, titration, stoichiometry, buffers, gas laws and half-life.
“One pH unit is a tenfold change in hydrogen-ion concentration.” — Dr. Ione
Molarity / Dilution · Stoichiometry · pH Calculator · Ideal Gas Law · Percent Yield · Molar Mass & Solution Prep · Titration · Buffer Solution · Reaction Half-Life
Servo Toleransky
Half raptor, half machine shop. Measures twice, cuts once, and logs both.
Presents: CNC speeds and feeds, surface finish, tap drills, sheet metal and tolerances.
“Halve the feed and the theoretical roughness drops to a quarter.” — Servo Toleransky
CNC Speeds & Feeds · Tap Drill Size · Bolt Circle Pattern · Sheet Metal Bend Allowance · Metal Stock Weight · Surface Finish Estimate · Tolerance Stack-Up · Press Brake Tonnage · Drilling Cycle Time
Capt. Vela
Calm, a little showy, never forgets the fuel.
Presents: The rocket equation, orbits, Hohmann transfers, lift, drag and Mach number.
“A Hohmann transfer from a low circular orbit to geostationary costs about 3.9 km/s of Δv.” — Capt. Vela
Rocket Equation · Orbital Velocity · Escape Velocity · Lift Equation · Drag Equation · Thrust-to-Weight Ratio · Mach Number · Wing Loading · Hohmann Transfer Orbit
Niki Saura
Old-school racer with goggles on the forehead. Thinks in tenths of a second.
Presents: Downforce, braking, weight transfer, corner weights, fuel strategy and lap times.
“Downforce grows with the square of speed: twice as fast, four times the downforce.” — Niki Saura
Gear Ratio & Top Speed · Weight Transfer · Tire Contact Patch · Aerodynamic Downforce · Braking Distance · Corner Weight Balance · Fuel Load Strategy · Suspension Spring Rate · Lap Time Delta
Dr. Pulsaurus
Careful and plain-spoken. Always reminds you that numbers screen, doctors diagnose.
Presents: BMI, metabolic rate, heart-rate zones and body surface area.
“BMI is a screening number only: it can't tell muscle from fat.” — Dr. Pulsaurus
BMI Calculator · Body Surface Area · BMR & Caloric Needs · Target Heart Rate Zones