Appendix B: Conversion Factors

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Aug 10, 2020
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- Appendix A: Units
- Appendix C: Fundamental Constants

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Table B1 - Length

	m	cm	km
1 meter	1	10²	10^-3
1 centimeter	10^-2	1	10^-5
1 kilometer	10³	10⁵	1
1 inch	2.540 x 10^-2	2.540	2.540 x 10^-5
1 foot	0.3048	30.48	3.048 x 10^-4
1 mile	1609	1.609 x 10⁴	1.609
1 angstrom	10^-10	10^-8	10^-13
1 fermi	10^-15	10^-13	10^-18
1 light-year	9.460 x 10¹⁵	9.460 x 10¹⁷	9.460 x 10¹²

	in	ft	mi
1 meter	39.37	3.281	6.214 x 10⁻⁴
1 centimeter	0.3937	3.281 x 10⁻²	6.214 x 10⁻⁶
1 kilometer	3.937 x 10⁴	3.281 x 10⁻⁴	0.6214
1 inch	1	8.333 x 10⁻²	1.578 x 10⁻⁵
1 foot	12	1	1.894 x 10⁻⁴
1 mile	6.336 x 10⁴	5280	1

Area

1 cm² = 0.155 in²

1 m² = 104 cm2 = 10.76 ft2

1 in² = 6.452 cm²

1 ft² = 144 in² = 0.0929 m²

Volume

1 liter = 1000 cm³ = 10⁻³ m³ = 0.03531 ft³ = 61.02 in³

1 ft³ = 0.02832 m³= 28.32 liters = 7.477 gallons

1 gallon = 3.788 liters

Table B2 - Time

	s	min	h	day	yr
1 second	1	1.667 x 10^-2	2.778 x 10^-4	1.157 x 10^-5	3.169 x 10^-8
1 minute	60	1	1.667 x 10^-2	6.944 x 10^-4	1.901 x 10^-6
1 hour	3600	60	1	4.167 x 10^-2	1.141 x 10^-4
1 day	8.640 x 10⁴	1440	24	1	2.738 x 10^-3
1 year	3.156 x 10⁷	5.259 x 10⁵	8.766 x 10³	365.25	1

Table B3 - Speed

	m/s	cm/s	ft/s	mi/h
1 meter/second	1	10²	3.281	2.237
1 centimeter/second	10^-2	1	3.281 x 10⁻²	2.237 x 10⁻²
1 foot/second	0.3048	30.48	1	0.6818
1 mile/hour	0.4470	44.70	1.467	1

Acceleration

1 m/s² = 100 cm/s² = 3.281 ft/s²

1 cm/s² = 0.01 m/s² = 0.03281 ft/s²

1 ft/s² = 0.3048 m/s² = 30.48 cm/s²

1 mi/h • s = 1.467 ft/s²

Table B4 - Mass

	kg	g	slug	u
1 kilogram	1	10³	6.852 x 10^-2	6.024 x 10²⁶
1 gram	10^-3	1	6.852 x 10^-5	6.024 x 10²³
1 slug	14.59	1.459 x 10⁴	1	8.789 x 10²⁷
1 atomic mass unit	1.661 x 10^-27	1.661 x 10^-24	1.138 x 10^-28	1
1 metric ton	1000

Table B5 - Force

	N	dyne	lb
1 newton	1	10⁵	0.2248
1 dyne	10^-5	1	2.248 x 10^-6
1 pound	4.448	4.448 x 10⁵	1

Table B6 - Pressure

*Where the acceleration due to gravity is 9.80665 m/s² and the temperature is 0 °C

	Pa	dyne/cm²	atm	cm Hg	lb/in²
1 pascal	1	10	9.869 x 10⁻⁶	7.501 x 10⁻⁴	1.450 x 10⁻⁴
1 dyne/ centimeter²	0.1	1	9.869 x 10⁻⁷	7.501 x 10⁻⁵	1.450 x 10⁻⁵
1 atmosphere	1.013 x 10⁵	1.013 x 10⁶	1	76	14.70
1 centimeter mercury*	1.333 x 10³	1.333 x 10⁴	1.316 x 10^-2	1	0.1934
1 pound/inch²	6.895 x 10³	6.895 x 10⁴	6.805 x 10^-2	5.171	1
1 bar	10⁵
1 torr				1 (mm Hg)

Table B7 - Work, Energy, Heat

	J	erg	ft • lb	eV	cal	Btu
1 joule	1	10⁷	0.7376	6.242 x 10¹⁸	0.2389	9.481 x 10^-4
1 erg	10^-7	1	7.376 x 10^-8	6.242 x 10¹¹	2.389x 10^-8	9.481 x 10^-11
1 foot-pound	1.356	1.356 x 10⁷	1	8.464 x 10¹⁸	0.3239	1.285 x 10^-3
1 electron-volt	1.602 x 10^-19	1.602 x 10^-12	1.182 x 10^-19	1	3.827 x 10^-20	1.519 x 10^-22
1 calorie	4.186	4.186 x 10⁷	3.088	2.613 x 10¹⁹	1	3.968 x 10^-3
1 British thermal unit	1.055 x 10³	1.055 x 10¹⁰	7.779 x 10²	6.585 x 10²¹	2.520 x 10²	1
1 kilowatt-hour	3.600 x 10⁶

Power

1 W = 1 J/s

1 hp = 746 W = 550 ft • lb/s

1 Btu/h = 0.293 W

Angle

1 rad = 57.30° = $\frac{180^{o}}{\pi}$

1° = 0.01745 rad = $\frac{\pi}{180\; rad}$

1 revolution = 360° = 2 $\pi$ rad

1 rev/min (rpm) = 0.1047 rad/s

Contributors and Attributions

Samuel J. Ling (Truman State University), Jeff Sanny (Loyola Marymount University), and Bill Moebs with many contributing authors. This work is licensed by OpenStax University Physics under a Creative Commons Attribution License (by 4.0).

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