I'm not an engineer, either. I got the method from Claude Freaner's article on furled leaders. Basically, you don't get the correct diameter for the twisted leader by multiplying the size of the mono by 4. This has to do with the circular cross section of the mono. You have to calculate the area of the circle, multiply it by 4, and then reverse calculate the diameter. Maybe an engineer will come along and explain it better.
I just figured out another interesting result from this method. When the leader goes from 4 strands to 2, the step down in diameter is only around 30% instead of the expected 50%. The same goes for the transition from 2 strands to 1.
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