mahutuvust

Mahutuvust, often translated as capacity, is the maximum amount that a container, system or structure can hold or process. It covers both physical capacity, such as the volume a tank can contain, and functional capacity, such as the amount of data a storage device can hold or a machine can handle. The concept is widely used across engineering, logistics, information technology and energy sectors in Estonian discourse.

Measurement and units vary by domain. For liquids or solids, capacity is typically expressed in liters or cubic meters (and sometimes gallons). In data storage, capacity is measured in bytes, with units such as kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes. For electrical or chemical storage, capacities may be described in watt-hours or ampere-hours. In each case, mahutuvust describes how much can be housed, stored or processed under defined conditions.

Practical considerations include the difference between nominal and usable capacity. Usable capacity can be reduced by safety margins, formatting overhead, reserved space for system operation or warranty requirements. Capacity planning involves estimating peak demand, expected growth and redundancy needs to ensure reliable operation. Over time, capacity can be increased through hardware upgrades, infrastructure expansion or process optimization, while underutilization may prompt adjustments to prevent waste.

Examples of mahutuvust appear in many contexts: the physical capacity of a water tank, the storage capacity of a cloud or hard drive, the cargo-handling capacity of a warehouse, and the energy capacity of a battery. Understanding capacity helps in design, budgeting, efficiency assessments and long-term planning across industries.