Math
Metric Conversions

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Converting values from one set of units to another is important for many applications. Here is one way to do it. Suppose we want to convert 5 inches to centimetres. We know that there are 2.54 cm in 1 inch. This means that:

 

To convert 5 inches to centimetres we set up the following expression:

 

Note that the inches units cancels leaving 5 X 2.54 cm or 12.7 cm. Suppose we want to convert 80 feet per second to centimetres per hour. We know that there are 12 inches in 1 foot, 2.54 centimetres in 1 inch and 3600 seconds in 1 hour.

or 8.78 x 10⁶ centimetres per hour