Converting Metric Units to English Units

The English system of measurements is most commonly used in the United States. In contrast,
the metric system is used throughout most of the rest of the world. Converting measurements
between the English and metric systems is a common everyday reason to know math. This
article gives you some precise metric-to-English conversions, as well as some easy-to-
remember conversions that are good enough for most situations.

Metric-to-English Conversions Metric Units in Plain English

1 meter ≈ 3.28 feet A meter is about 3 feet (1 yard).
1 kilometer ≈ 0.62 miles A kilometer is about 1/2 mile.
1 liter ≈ 0.26 gallons A liter is about 1 quart (1/4 gallon).
1 kilogram ≈ 2.20 pounds A kilo is about 2 pounds.
0°C = 32°F 0°C is cold.
10°C = 50°F 10°C is cool.
20°C = 68°F 20°C is warm.
30°C = 86° 30°C is hot.

Here's an easy temperature conversion to remember: 16°C = 61°F.

How do you convert the metric system to the

English system?
Here’s an easy temperature conversion to remember: 16°C = 61°F….Converting Metric
Units to English Units.

Metric-to-English Conversions Metric Units in Plain English

1 kilometer ≈ 0.62 miles A kilometer is about 1/2 mile.

 1 liter ≈ 0.26 gallons A liter is about 1 quart (1/4 gallon).

1 kilogram ≈ 2.20 pounds A kilo is about 2 pounds.

0°C = 32°F 0°C is cold.

What is the saying when converting in the metric

system?
This chart helps kids memorize the metric system units by the acronym “King Henry
Died By Drinking Chocolate Milk.” Some people have also learned it through the
acronym, “King Henry Drank Lime Green Milk During Counsel Meetings.” It is a ‘”first
letter” mnemonic device.

What is the difference between the metric system

and the English system?
In the Imperial Knowledgebase, all constants and measures are based on the imperial
units. Whereas most countries use the metric system which includes measuring units of
meters and grams, in the United States, the imperial system is used where things are
measured in feet, inches, and pounds.

What is a conversion factor give an example?

A conversion factor is a number used to change one set of units to another, by

multiplying or dividing. When a conversion is necessary, the appropriate conversion
factor to an equal value must be used. For example, to convert inches to feet, the
appropriate conversion value is 12 inches equal 1 foot.
How to convert between metric and Apothecary systems?

The table below shows conversion equivalents among the metric, apothecary and
household measurement systems. The most frequently used conversions are shown
below. It is suggested that you memorize these. If at any point you are not sure of a
conversion factor, look it up.

How do you convert from one unit to another in the

metric system?
Converting within the Metric System. To convert from one unit to another within the
metric system usually means moving a decimal point. If you can remember what the
prefixes mean, you can convert within the metric system relatively easily by simply
multiplying or dividing the number by the value of the prefix.

What happens when you convert one system of

measurement to another?
Accuracy is required. Converting one system of measurement to another system of
measurement requires that you know, or you are able to look up, the equivalent unit of
measurement for the different systems of measurement.

 to estimate equivalence between the Metric Units and US Customary Units

 To convert Metric Units to US Customary Units
 To convert US Customary Units to Metric Units
Estimate equivalence between the Metric Units and US Customary Units

Before converting metric units to US customary units and vice versa, you need to
familiarize the approximate metric equivalents of common customary units. The table
below summarizes the commonly used metric and US customary units and their
approximate equivalence. The notations enclosed are the abbreviations of each unit.

Metric Units US Customary Units

Lengths
1 meter (m) 3.28 feet (ft. or ’)

1 kilometer (km) 0.62 mile (m)

1 centimeter (cm) 0.39 inch (in. or ”)

0.9144 meter (m) 1 yard (yd.)

1.852 kilometers (km) 1 nautical mile (nmi. or NM)

Weight

1 kilogram (kg) 2.2 pounds (lb. or #)

28.3 grams (g) 1 ounce (oz.)

1 milligram (mg) 0.002 teaspoon (tsp.)

Fluid Capacity

29.57 milliliters (mL) 1 fluid ounce (fl. Oz.)

1 liter (L) 4.23 cups (c)

3.79 liters (L) 1 gallon (gal.)

473.176 milliliters (mL) 1 pint (pt.)

 0.95 liters (L) 1 quart (qt.)

158.987 liters (L) 1 barrel (bbl.)

Additional Common Conversions

Metric Units US Customary Units

Area

6.45 square centimeters (cm2) 1 square inch (in2)

1 square meter (m2) 1.196 square yard (yd2)

4046.873 square meters (m2) 1 acre (ac.)

Volume and Capacity

16.39 milliliter (mL) 1 cubic inch (in3)

28.32 liters (L) 1 cubic foot (ft3)

764.55 liters (L) 1 cubic yard (yd3)

1233.482 cubic meters (m3) 1 cubic foot (ft3)

Convert Metric Units to US Customary Units

You have familiarized the commonly used equivalence between metric and US
customary units. At this point, you will learn to convert metric units to US customary
units.

To convert metric units to US customary units, use their estimate equivalence. Write the
equivalence as a ratio, and multiply it to the given measurement (in metric) to convert.
Be sure that the units of measure to convert cancels out. For instance, to convert liters
to gallons, be sure to cancel out liters and retain gallons as the final unit.

Now, let us consider some examples.

Example 1

The official regulators of a shipment company classify a parcel weighing more than 51
pounds (lbs.) as a heavy shipment. Andrea packed 24 terracotta plant containers to be
shipped to her customers. If each plant container weighs 1.3 kilograms (kg), will her
package be classified as a heavy shipment?  

Solution

To determine whether the parcel is a heavy shipment or not, you need to convert the
total weight of the plant containers to pounds.

Compute for the total weight.

 Total Weight =24×1.3 kg Total Weight =24×1.3 kg

=31.2 kg=31.2 kg

Convert the total weight to pounds. Use the metric to US customary units’ equivalence:
1 kg = 2.2 lbs.

31.2 kg×2.2 lbs1 kg=68.64 lbs31.2 kg×2.2 lbs1 kg=68.64 lbs

Since the total weight is more than 51 lbs., the shipment is considered heavy.

Try it Now 1
Angelica who lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, visited her friend in Canada. She knows that
Canada uses the metric system, so their speed limits are posted in kilometers per hour.
On her way, she sees a road sign that says, “max 60 km/h”. She knows the sign means
“a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour” but she is unsure if this is over the speed
limit in Las Vegas, Nevada. How can Angelica convert 60 km/h to miles per hour? Use
the metric to US customary units’ equivalence: 1 kilometer (km) = 0.62 mile.

Answer

Example 2

Half of a meter of ribbon is required for wrapping presents enclosed in a rectangular

box. How many presents using the same box size can be wrapped with 10 yards of
ribbon?

Solution

Convert half a meter (0.5 m) to yards. Use the metric to US customary units’
equivalence: 1 yard = 0.9144 meter.

0.5 m×1 yd 0.9144 m=0.5468 yd 0.5 m×1 yd 0.9144 m=0.5468 yd 

The result means that one present requires 0.5468 yards of ribbon. Calculate the
number of presents by dividing 10 yards by 0.5468 yards.

10 yds ÷0.5468 yd 1 present=10 yd×1 present0.5468 yd=18.29 presents 
10 yds ÷0.5468 yd 1 present=10 yd×1 present0.5468 yd=18.29 presents 

Approximately, 18 presents can be wrapped with 10 yards of ribbons.

Try it Now 2

Crystal and her friends are planning for a road trip, which they have determined to be
2,000 kilometers (km) long. They want to rent a van that can travel 100 km using 9
liters of gas. Suppose the gas price is $2.74 a gallon (gal.), how many gallons of gas
they will need? How much money will the group of friends need to save for gas? Use
the metric to US customary units’ equivalence: 4.405 liters (L)= 1 gallon (gal.).

Answer
 

Try it Now 3

Christine plans to put up a short-course swimming pool at her house. A short-course

swimming pool usually measures 22.86 meters in length, at least 18.29 meters in width,
and 2.5 meters in depth. Convert the dimensions of the pool to inches. Use the metric
to US customary units’ equivalence: 1 centimeter (cm) = 0.39 inch (in.) and 1
centimeter (cm) = 0.01 meter (m).

Answer

Try It Now 4

Drug dosage for children is based on body weights, milligrams per pound (mg/lb). A 5-
year-old child with Meningitis who weighs 20 kilograms was prescribed Ceftriaxone. The
dosage requirement is 220 milligrams per pound per day (mg/lb/day) once daily. The
drug is prediluted in 40 mg/mL concentration. Calculate the dose in teaspoons. Use the
metric to US customary units’ equivalence: 1 kilogram (kg) = 2.2 pounds (lb.) and 1 mg
= 0.0002 tsp.

Answer

Convert US Customary Units to Metric Units

You have learned how to convert metric units to US customary units. Now, you will
learn to convert US customary units to metric units.

Example 3

Daniel drove 40 miles in two hours. What distance (in meters) did he cover in one
minute? Use the US customary to metric units’ equivalence: 0.62 mile (mi.) = 1
kilometer (km), 1 km is equal to 1,000 meters (m), and 1 hour = 60 minutes.

Solution

Convert 40 miles in two hours to kilometers per hour.

40 mi2 hrs ×1 km 0.62 mi=32.2581 km/hr 40 mi2 hrs ×1 km 0.62 mi=32.2581 
km/hr 
Convert 32.2581 kilometers per hour to meters per hour.

32.2581 km 1 hr ×1000 m 1 km=32,258.1 m/hr 32.2581 km 1 hr ×1000 m 1 k
m=32,258.1 m/hr 

Convert 32,258.1 meters per hour to meters per minute.

32,258.1 m 1 hr×1 hr60 min =537.635 m/min 32,258.1 m 1 hr×1 hr60 min =5
37.635 m/min 

Daniel has covered 537.635 meters in one minute.

Try It Now 5

A supermarket has a car parking spot that is 9 feet wide and 18 feet long. Its ground-
level parking has 50 parallel parking spots (side by side) of the same sizes. What is the
area of the parking lot in square centimeters? Use the US customary units’ equivalence:
1 foot (ft.) = 12 inches (in.) and 1 square inch (in2) = 6.45 square centimeters (cm2).
(Hint: You will need to use the formula to find the area of a rectangle)

Answer

Example 4

Allison wants to bake a chocolate cake. The recipe requires 1¾ cups of all-purpose
flour. A supermarket sells all-purpose flour in grams instead of cups. All-purpose
flour comes in the following sizes: 80 grams, 400 grams, and 800 grams. If Allison
plans to buy just enough flour for 1 recipe, which size will she buy? Use the US
customary units equivalence: 1 cup (c.) = 8 ounces (oz.) and 1 ounce (oz.) = 28.3
grams (g).

Solution

Converting 1¾ to a fraction or decimal will help when converting cups to ounces. In

this example 1¾ = 1.75 will be used.

1.75 cups×8 oz 1 cup=14 oz 1.75 cups×8 oz 1 cup=14 oz 

Convert ounces to grams.

 14 oz×28.3 g 1 oz=396.2 g 14 oz×28.3 g 1 oz=396.2 g 

Since 80 grams is less than the required recipe amount and 800 grams is much higher
than 396.2 grams, Allison must buy the 400 gram package.

Try It Now 6

Melody’s house garage is 45 feet long while David’s garage is 10 yards and 10 feet
long. Which house has a longer garage? How much is the difference (in meters)? Use
the US customary to metric equivalence: 3.28 feet (ft.) = 1 meter (m) and 1 foot (ft.) =
0.3333 yard (yd.)

Answer

Try it Now 7

How many liters of water are needed to fill an Olympic swimming pool with a total
volume of 3,300 cubic yards? Assume that the water level is as deep as the pool. Use
the US customary to metric units’ equivalence: 1 cubic yard (yd 3) = 746.56 liters (L).

Answer

Try It Now 8

Robert’s new car requires at most 57 liters of fuel. If the current average price for
regular gas is $2.864 per gallon, how much will it cost him to fill his car’s tank? Use the
US customary to metric units’ equivalence: 1 gallon = 3.79 liters

Answer

The metric system and English system, also called the imperial system of
measurements, are both common systems of measurement used today.

The main difference between imperial and metric units are that metric units are easier
to convert between because those conversions require only multiplying or dividing by
powers of 10. There are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, 100 centimeters in a meter,
 and 1,000 meters in a kilometer. To convert between these units, you only need to
move the decimal place. For example:

5200\text{ mm} = 520\text{ cm} = 5.2\text{ m} = 0.0052\

text{ km}5200 mm=520 cm=5.2 m=0.0052 km

The same is true for metric mass units – there are 1,000 grams in a kilogram.

Converting imperial units is much less straightforward. Take imperial length units, for
example. There are 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard and 1,760 yards in a mile.
Converting 520 feet to miles would go something like this:

520 \sout{\text{ feet}} \Bigl( {\sout{1\text{ yard}} \above{1pt} \sout{3\

text{ feet}}}\Bigr)\Bigl({1\text{ mile} \above{1pt} \sout{1760\text{ yards}}} \
Bigr) =0.0985 \text{ miles}520 feet(3 feet1 yard)(1760 yards1 mile)=0.0985 miles

Another difference between imperial and metric units is where they are commonly
used. In the United States, imperial units are used for most everyday purposes,
whereas almost everywhere else in the world, metric system units are more common.

Conversion Between Metric System and English System Units

The following is a list of some of the relationships between imperial and metric system
units:

 1 inch = 2.54 cm
 1 ft = 30.48 cm
 1 mile = 1.609 km
 1 pound = 0.454 kg
 1 gallon = 3.785 L

The International System of Units

The difference between imperial and metric units becomes particularly relevant when
talking about base units. The International System of Units (SI), the official system of
measurement used throughout the world, especially in scientific applications, is based
upon the metric system units. All SI units can be formed by a combination of seven
base units.

What Are the Seven Basic Units of Measurement?

You are likely familiar with using a ruler to measure length, a stopwatch to measure
time or a scale to measure mass, but have you ever wondered how accurate these
devices are, and how you can be sure that all rulers and stopwatches and scales are
measuring equally well? And how were the associated units defined in the first place?

If you think about a wooden ruler, for example, it is subject to minor variations in
length due to expansion and contraction resulting from humidity and temperature. In
fact, all materials vary slightly in size due to environmental conditions and are subject
to scratches, impurities and changes over time. Ultimately, in order to enable
extremely accurate scientific measurements, we need precise ways to define units of
measurement.

All SI units can be derived from seven base units of measurement, each of which are
defined in terms of fundamental scientific constants as described in the following
sections. Note that no such equivalent set of fundamental definitions exists for any
imperial units. Rather, imperial units are derived as unit conversions from SI units.

Time

Originally, time was measured in the passing of days. Eventually these days were
broken into 24 hours, the hours broken into 60 minutes and each minute into 60
seconds.

Mechanical clocks built in medieval Europe were some of the first devices that made
for consistent and uniform time measurements. But now we are capable of
considerably more accuracy. The SI unit of time is the second, and 1 second is
defined as the time it takes for a cesium-133 atom to oscillate 9,192,631,770 times.

Length

Length is a measure of linear distance. The SI unit for length is the meter, but the
formal definition of 1 meter has changed over the years. Originally, 1 meter was
defined as the unit of length equivalent to 10 -7 of the Earth's quadrant passing through
Paris.

Later, a platinum iridium prototype rod was made, and copies distributed that were
regularly compared to it. But now the meter is defined in terms of the constant speed
of light in a vacuum, c = 299,792,458 m/s.

Mass

Mass is a measure of an object’s inertia, or resistance to changes in motion. The SI

unit of mass is the kg. 1 kg has also been officially defined differently over the years.
Originally 1 kg was equal to 1 cubic decimeter of water at the temperature of
maximum density.
Later, just as with the meter, 1 kg was defined as the mass of the International
Prototype Kilogram, a cylinder made of platinum iridium alloy. Now it is defined in
terms of the fundamental Planck’s constant, h = 6.62607015 × 10 -34 kgm2/s.

Amount of Substance

This concept is just what it sounds like. It is how much of something you have – the
number of apples on a tree or the number of atoms in an apple. While you might
expect that the SI unit would be simply the numerical count of something, it is actually
another unit called the mole.

1 mole of a substance contains exactly 6.02214076 × 10 23 elementary items. This

number, also known as Avogadro's number, is exactly equal to the number of atoms in
12 grams of carbon-12, and it is often very close to the number of nucleons (protons
plus neutrons) in one gram of any type of ordinary matter.

Current

It might seem counterintuitive that current, a measure of the rate of charge passing
through a point, is considered a fundamental unit instead of charge itself. But the
reason for this is that current had previously been easier to measure than charge, and
the accuracy of all units relies on our ability to accurately measure the base units.

The SI unit for current is the ampere. Originally, one ampere was defined as the
constant current required for two parallel conductors of infinite length and negligible
cross section placed 1 meter apart in a vacuum to exert a force of 2 × 10 -7 N on each
other per unit length. Now it is defined in terms of the elementary charge e =
1.602176634 × 10–19 C.

Temperature

Temperature is a measure of the average energy per molecule in a substance. Units

of Fahrenheit and Celsius have been used for hundreds of years to measure
temperature. On the Fahrenheit scale, water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212
degrees, and this defines the degree increments. On the Celsius scale, water freezes
at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees.

The fatal flaw in these units, however, is that they don’t start at 0. The fact that it is
possible to have negative temperature values on these scales quickly makes things
confusing when you consider what it might mean for something to be twice as hot as
something else. What is twice as hot as 0 degrees?

The SI unit for temperature is the Kelvin, where 0 Kelvin is defined as being absolute
0, or the coldest possible temperature something can be. The size of an increment in
the Kelvin scale is the same as an increment in the Celsius scale, and 0 Kelvin = -
273.15 degrees Celsius. The Kelvin is formally defined in terms of the fundamental
Boltzmann constant k = 1.380649 × 10 – 23 J/K.

Light

The fundamental unit for luminous intensity is the candela (cd). A common candle
emits about 1 cd. The official, precise definition is defined in terms of the luminous
efficacy of radiation of frequency 540 × 10 12 Hz.

what is the difference between English system and metric system?

The Metric System of Measurement is easier to use than the English System of
Measurement since its conversion factors would consistently be in the decimal
system, unlike the English System of Measurement where units of lengths
have different conversion factors.

What is the difference between US customary and metric system?

Rather, it uses its own system called the U.S. customary system. Whereas
metric countries use units such as meters, grams, metric tons, Celsius
temperature readings, liters and hectares, the U.S. system uses inches, feet,
yards, miles, ounces, pounds, Fahrenheit temperature readings and acres.

What is the difference between imperial and metric systems of

measurement?

“Metric” comes from the word “metre”. The metric system is decimal because
it is always based on powers of 10. The Imperial system is based on the inch /
foot / yard / mile (length), the ounce / pound / stone / hundredweight (weight
/ mass) and the fluid ounce / pint / quart / gallon (volume).

the English system of measurement consists of standardized weights and measurements developed
out of archaic approximations, such as a human foot equating to a standardized ''foot.'' Dive into its
advantages and disadvantages, tracking this measurement system through history.