Fraso / nomograms

Baking

Bread hydration

Flour weight and hydration against water weight.

A bread hydration nomogram: three vertical scales, F (100 to 2000) on the left, W (50 to 2200) in the middle and h (50 to 110) on the right. A straight line laid across any two scales cuts the third at the value that satisfies W = F · h ÷ 100.20001700140012001000800700600500400350300260200170140120100Fg110106100969390878480777470676462605856545250h%22001800150012001000800600500400300250200170140100806050Wg

Readings

g
%
g

Drag the red line, or type into any two boxes — the third is solved. The marked box is the one being solved for.

Print at 100% scale, then check the 100 mm bar with a rule before trusting a reading.

Why this one is an instrument

Bakers scale recipes constantly and in both directions — sometimes from the flour they have, sometimes from the tin they are filling, sometimes from a starter already built. All three readings come off the same instrument without rearranging anything, which is the property a calculator cannot give you: a nomogram has no inputs and outputs, only three values that must agree.

Equation
W = F · h ÷ 100
Ranges
F 100–2000 g · h 50–110 %
Reading
Any two values fix the third. Outside the printed ranges the instrument stops being valid — that is what the end marks are for.

These are drawn from the stated equation and nothing else. Where an equation is itself an approximation — hyperfocal distance and tap drill sizes both are — the instrument inherits that approximation exactly, no better and no worse.