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Galaxynet :: Metric Conversion

This page provides automatic conversion of some units of measurement to be found in use around the world today (and a few of historical interest), so you can change them into a 'standard' unit of the SI. Le Systeme international d'Unites officially came into being in October 1960 and has been adopted by nearly all countries, though the amount of actual usage varies considerably. This page is by no means complete, and only covers the most common units of measure. Also, liters and meters are spelled with the E and R purposely transposed, as spelled in metric countries -- litres and metres.

Choose a Calculator: Length | Weight | Pressure | Volume | Power | Astronomical Distance | Area | Speed | Force | Fuel Consumption | Energy | Temperature | Date

Length Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate length in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur in the millionth (or billionth) decimal place.

Millimetres
Centimetres
Inches
Metres
Feet
Yards
Miles
Kilometres
Nautical Miles
Furlongs
Microns

Weight Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate weight in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur in the millionth (or billionth) decimal place.

Grains
Milligrams
Grams
Kilograms
Ounces
Pounds
Hundredweight
Stones
US Tons (short)
UK Tons (long)
Metric Carats

Pressure Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate pressure in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur in the millionth (or billionth) decimal place.

Millibars
Bars
Pascals
Kilopascals
Pounds per Sq. Inch
Pounds per Sq. Foot
Inches of Mercury
Millimetres of Mercury

Volume Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate volume in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur in the billionth (or trillionth) decimal place.

Litres
Millilitres
US Fluid Ounces
US Liquid Pints
US Liquid Quarts
US Liquid Gallons
US Dry Pints
US Dry Quarts
US Dry Gallons
Cubic Inches
Cubic Feet
Cubic Yards
Cubic Metres
Cubic Centimetres

Power Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate power in all the remaining empty fields. Watts is the metric equivalent of horsepower. Some rounding may occur in the millionth (or billionth) decimal place.

Watts
Kilowatts
Horsepower
BTU per Hour

Astronomical Distance Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate light years into miles or miles into light years. Ever watch Star Trek Voyager? Their spacecraft was pushed 70,000 light years away from home. That over 410 quadrillion miles! Definitions: A lightsecond is the distance that light in the vacuum of space travels in one second. A lightyear is the distance that light travels in one year. An astronomical unit is the approximate mean distance between the Sun and Earth. A parsec stands for "parallax of one arc second." It's approximately the distance at which the radius of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun covers an angle of 1 second of arc. You can find out more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_units_of_length.

Parsecs
Light Years
Light Seconds
Miles
Kilometres
Astronomical Units

Area Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate area in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur in the billionth (or trillionth) decimal place.

Square Inches
Square Feet
Square Yards
Acres
Square Miles
Townships
Square Millimetres
Square Centimetres
Square Metres
Hectares
Square Kilometres

Speed Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate speed in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur in the billionth (or trillionth) decimal place.

Knots
Kilometres per Hour
Miles per Hour
Metres per Second
Feet per Second
Mach

Force Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate force in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur.

Ounces Force
Pounds Force
Poundals
US Tons Force
Kips
Dynes
Newtons
Kilonewtons
Meganewtons
Kilograms Force

Fuel Consumption Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate fuel consumption in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur.

Miles per Gallon
Miles per Litre
Kilometres per Gallon
Kilometres per Litre

Energy Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate energy in all the remaining empty fields. Some rounding may occur.

Watt Hours (Wh)
Kilowatt Hours (kWh)
Megawatt Hours (MWh)
British Thermal Units (BTU)
Foot Pounds Force
Joules (J)
Kilojoules (kJ)
Megajoules (MJ)
Gigajoules (GJ)
Calories

Temerature Calculator

Enter a number in any field then click the "Convrt" button to automatically calculate temerature from celcius or fahrenheit. This is useful for converting temperatures if you listen to a Canadian radio station, or go skiing in Canada, and would like to know the US equivalent.

Fahrenheit
Celsius

Date Calculator

Enter a date in the fields provided, and this calculator will tell you how many years and days since or before the provided date. Enter only numbers.

Mon Day Year Results

Prefixes of the SI

The SI allows the sizes of units to be made bigger or smaller by the use of appropriate prefixes. For example, the cycle unit of a hertz [hz] is not a big unit in terms of ordinary computer speed, so it is generally used in terms of 1,000,000 hertz at a time. The prefix for 1,000,000 is mega, so we use megahertz [Mhz] as our unit of measurement. For your computer, it is common to use megahertz [Mhz] to describe the speed of the Central Processing Unit (CPU). A 200 Mhz CPU runs at 200 million cycles. When talking about your hard drive, bytes [B] are used, and common prefixes for hard drives are mega [M], giga [G], and even terra [T]. A 4.3 gigabyte [GB] hard drive can store roughly 4 billion, 300 million bytes of data, while a 2 terrabyte [TB] disk array could store 2 trillion bytes of data. That's a lot of space! The full range of prefixes with their symbols (or abbreviations) and their multiplying factors which are also given in other forms:

Prefix Symbol Factor Full ValueName
yotta- Y +24 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000septillion
zetta- Z +21 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000sextillion
exa- E +18 1,000,000,000,000,000,000quintillion
peta- P +15 1,000,000,000,000,000quadrillion
tera- T +12 1,000,000,000,000trillion
giga- G +9 1,000,000,000billion
mega- M +6 1,000,000million
kilo- k +3 1,000thousand
hecto- h +2 100hundred
deca- da +1 10ten
    0 1one
deci- d -1 0.1tenth
centi- c -2 0.01hundredth
milli- m -3 0.001thousandth
micro- µ -6 0.000,001millionth
nano- n -9 0.000,000,001billionth
pico- p -12 0.000,000,000,001trillionth
femto- f -15 0.000,000,000,000,001quadrillionth
atto- a -18 0.000,000,000,000,000,001quintillionth
zepto- z -21 0.000,000,000,000,000,000,001sextillionth
yocto- y -24 0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001septillionth

A Brief History of Measurement

One of the earliest types of measurement concerned that of length. These measurements were usually based on parts of the body. A well documented example (the first) is the Egyptian cubit which was derived from the length of the arm from the elbow to the outstretched finger tips. By 2500 BC this had been standardized in a royal master cubit made of black marble (about 52 cm). This cubit was divided into 28 digits (roughly a finger width) which could be further divided into fractional parts, the smallest of these being only just over a millimetre.

In England, units of measurement were not properly standardized until the 13th century, though variations (and abuses) continued until long after that. For example, there were three different gallons (ale, wine and corn) up until 1824 when the gallon was standardized.

In the US the system of weights and measured first adopted was that of the English, though a few differences came in when decisions were made at the time of standardization in 1836. For instance, the wine-gallon of 231 cubic inches was used instead of the English one (as defined in 1824) of about 277 cubic inches. The US also took as its standard of dry measure from the old Winchester bushel of 2150.42 cubic inches, which gave a dry gallon nearly 269 cubic inches.

Even as late as the middle of the 20th century there were some differences in UK and US measures which were nominally the same. The UK inch measured 2.53998 cm while the US inch was 2.540005 cm. Both were standardized at 2.54 cm in July 1959, though the US continued to use its 2.540005 value for several years in land surveying work - this too is slowly being metricated.

In France the metric system officially started in June 1799 with the declared intent of being 'For all people, for all time'. The unit of length was the metre which was defined as being one ten-millionth part of a quarter of the earth's circumference. The production of this standard required a very careful survey to be done which took several years. However, as more accurate instruments became available so the 'exactness' of the standard was called into question. Later efforts were directed at finding some absolute standard based on an observable physical phenomenon. Over two centuries this developed into the SI. So maybe their original slogan was more correct than anyone could have foreseen then.

The US System of Measurements

Most of the US system of measurements is the same as that for the UK. The biggest differences to be noted are in Capacity which has both liquid and dry measures as well as being based on a different standard - the US liquid gallon is smaller than the UK gallon. There is also a measurement known as the US survey foot. It is gradually being phased out as the maps and land plans are re-drawn under metrication. (The changeover is being made by putting 39.37 US survey feet equal to 12 metres)

Length
12 inches1 foot
3 feet1 yard
220 yards1 furlong
8 furlongs1 mile
5280 feet1 mile
1760 yards1 mile
Area
144 sq. inches1 sq. foot
9 sq. feet1 square yard
4840 sq. yards1 acre
640 acres1 square mile
1 sq.mile1 section
36 sections1 township
Capacity (Dry)
2 pints1 quart
8 quarts1 peck
4 pecks1 bushel
Capacity (Liquid)
4 ounces1 gill
4 gills1 pint
16 fluid ounces1 pint
2 pints1 quart
4 quarts1 gallon
8 pints1 gallon
Volume
1728 cu. inches1 cubic foot
27 cu. feet1 cubic yard
Mass
437.5 grains1 ounce
7000 grains1 pound
16 ounces1 pound
14 pounds1 stone
100 pounds1 hundredweight
2000 pounds1 ton
20 hundredweight1 ton
Troy Weights
24 grains1 pennyweight
20 pennyweights1 ounce
480 grains1 ounce
12 ounces1 pound
5760 grains1 pound
Apothecaries' Measures
60 minims1 fl.dram
8 fl.drams1 fl.ounce
16 fl.ounces1 pint
Apothecaries' Weights
20 grains1 scruple
3 scruples1 dram
8 drams1 ounce