Units

2025-07-17T01:36:05Z

Kjh8990: wrong peta value (10^16 => 10^15)

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'''Units''' - by definition - are definite, representational quantities of measurement for different systems. Units can represent the measuring of electricity, amount of items, the time taken/required to perform a task or even the amount of stacks of items with differing amounts within said stacks.

Not all in-game units are simulated with full realism.

== Numerical abbreviations ==
Each unit in the game can be abbreviated with the following:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Abbreviation !! Value !! Numeral !! SI Prefix
|-
| k || 10^3 || thousand || kilo
|-
| M || 10^6 || million || Mega
|-
| G || 10^9 || billion || Giga
|-
| T || 10^12 || trillion || Tera
|-
| P || 10^15 || quadrillion || Peta
|-
| E || 10^18 || quintillion || Exa
|-
| Z || 10^21 || sextillion || Zetta
|-
| Y || 10^24 || septillion || Yotta
|-
| R || 10^27 || octillion || Ronna
|-
| Q || 10^30 || nonillion || Quetta
|-
|}

For example, instead of using 1000 J is equal to 1kJ.

== Power ==
Power is defined as work being done per unit of time.

=== Watt (W) ===
The basic unit of power is 1 watt (W), which is defined as '''1 W = 1 J/s ''', ie. one Joule of work being done every second.

The game commonly deals with larger units, namely kilowatts (kW) and megawatts (MW).

[[Lamp|Lamps]] use 5 kW while turned on. A [[Radar]] uses 300 kW while active - equivalent to 60 lamps.
One [[Steam engine]] is capable of outputting 900 kW.

== Work ==

Work is defined as a transfer of energy, or as energy being "spent".

=== Joule (J) ===
The basic unit of work is 1 joule (J), and is equivalent to the work done (total energy transferred) by one watt applied for one second: '''1 J = 1 W s'''.

In-game, [[Fuel]] is really just potential energy, which, when applied, does work. For example, every piece of [[coal]] burned will produce 4 MJ. One [[Accumulator]] is capable of storing 5 MJ.

In the real world, kilowatt hours is a much more common unit for energy, but it is ''not'' an [[:WIKIPEDIA:International_System_of_Units#Derived_units|SI derived unit]] so it is not used by the game.

== [[Time]] ==

=== Tick (1/60 s) ===
A 1/60 second in game. This is the shortest time fraction the game handles.

=== Second (s) ===
One second in-game. This is not guaranteed to correspond to one real second. For example, slow computers may not manage to calculate an entire tick during the corresponding real time frame of 1/60th of a second.

=== Day ===

A day is 25200 in-game ticks or 420 in-game seconds (= 7 in-game minutes) long.

== [[Map structure|Distance / Space]] ==

=== Tile ===
The tile is both used as a unit of distance/length and a unit of area. For example, the size of an object may be expressed as "2×2 tiles", which means the object covers an area of 4 square tiles or tiles². The unit of square tiles is often simplified into tiles. It can be assumed, that a tile has the length of 1 meter.

=== Chunk ===
A chunk is a quadratic area where one side is 32 tiles long. (1024 square tiles). A grid of tiles and chunks in can be viewed in the [[debug mode]] by pressing {{keybinding|F5}}.

=== Kilometers ===
A kilometer is 1000 meters, it is used to measure distance traveled in a [[space platform]].

== Force ==

=== Newtons (N) ===
Newtons measure the amount of forceful thrust of a space platform being moved by [[thruster]]s. This can be increased by adding more thrusters. More force can add damage to [[asteroids]] colliding with a platform, but the asteroids will, in turn, damage the platform as well.

== Mass / Weight ==

=== Tons (t) ===
A single ton is 1000 kilograms. The only time mass is measured in ''Factorio'' is calculating the sum of all parts that make up a space platform. The more components added and the bigger the platform's size, the more mass it will accumulate. The larger the mass of a platform, the harder it is for thrusters to move it to its destination.

== Logistics ==

=== Throughput ===

Items per time, or fluid-units per time. A unit measurement is

items / game-minute

==== Belts ====

Throughput = speed × density

For comparison: A [[transport belt]] transports normally about 900 items per in-game minute. A [[fast transport belt]] up to 1800 items/min and [[express transport belt]] nearly 2700 items / min.
See [[Transport belts/Physics|physics of transport belts]] for more information.

==== Logistic robots ====

Throughput depends on the distance, the number of robots and their item-stacksize. Let's assume a robot can travel 1 tile per second and can transport only one item at once. It needs also to return. Then this robot can transport ½ item per second. If you use 2 you can transport 1 item per second. If you double the distance, we are again at ½ item per second.

==== Trains ====

Items per train is the sum of all wagons' capacity (40 stacks for [[cargo wagon]], 50000 fluid for [[fluid wagon]] & 100 shells for [[artillery wagon]])

Top speed (later referred to as S) and acceleration (later referred to as A) depend on fuel type and train weight, for a coal-powered single locomotive without wagons they are 72 tiles/s and 9.26 tiles/s/s.

After some threshold the top speed starts decreasing linearly as train mass increases; acceleration is proportional to amount of locomotives pointing towards the travel direction and inversely proportional to train mass; deceleration is proportional to amount of wagons + amount of locomotives, inversely proportional to train mass, and affected by [[braking force (research)]] (train mass is the sum of all wagon and locomotive masses; see detailed info on wagon masses on [[locomotive]], [[cargo wagon]], [[fluid wagon]], and [[artillery wagon]] pages).

Warning: The following calculations assume deceleration = acceleration and do not account for red lights.

Travel time is <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">(2S / A) + (distance - 4 * S^2 / A) / S</syntaxhighlight> if the stations are far enough for the train to achieve full speed. If they are closer than that, the time is <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">2 * sqrt(distance / A)</syntaxhighlight>

Since a train has to make a trip back to load, the total throughput is <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">items per train / (2 * travel time)</syntaxhighlight>

=== Capacity ===
Basically items per transport unit. This depends in many cases on the item type you use. A [[cargo wagon]] has a capacity of 40 stacks. Stack size depends on the item type so this means that it can hold 2000 items for ore, or 4000 for steel or copper plates.

=== Density ===
Measured in items per tile.

An item, that lays on ground has the size of 0.28 tiles<sup>2</sup>. On one tile we can place 12.752041 items, which means, that we can put in the best case 12 items on one tile.

==== Belts ====

For belts this is the same: We have two lanes on a belt, 4 items per lane or 8 item on one belt.

On belts there comes also another thing into play: '''Compression.''' Good compression is, when you fill a belt so, that you come to the maximum density and so to the maximum '''throughput'''.
See also [[Transport belts/Physics|physics of transport belts]] for more information.

=== Stacks/chests ===
On the first glance, it is simple: A chest has the size of one tile. You have X number of stack in a chest, where you can put Y numbers of items into each, so the density is simply X × Y.

The thing changes, if you use mods, that add chest-like transport boxes, which enables to pack/box items.

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Units