Metric to English

You re on your European tour and you ve brought some fabric samples to make curtains for your hostess and a recipe so you can cook up a thank-you dinner. Now you have the challenge of converting some of your measures into the measures of the country you re visiting. 

Part of the challenge of cooking in another country is trying to find the ingredients that you re used to working with at home. The other challenge comes when you need to measure those ingredients. 

The Problem Your recipe for lasagna calls for a 16-ounce jar (2 cups) of tomato sauce. You find a can of tomato puree (which you ll have to spice up a bit), and the can contains % liter of puree. How many cans of the puree will 

Create a proportion using 1 cup = 0.2365 liter and 2 cups = x liters. Solve for x, which will be the amount of tomato sauce you need in terms of liters. Then compare that amount to X or 0.75 liter. 

The can contains 0.473 liter of tomato sauce. You need 0.75 liter. You ll have to buy 2 cans, giving you 0.946 liter, and just save the extra for the next project. Good luck with the measuring part  

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Adjusting units for ease in computations Changing from English to metric units and back again Squaring off with square and cubic units... 

How important are conversions from one unit to another If you ask the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), very important In 1999 NASA lost a 125 million Mars Climate Or-biter because of a failure to convert from English to metric units. 

NASA s mistake refueled the controversy over whether Congress should require the United States to switch to the metric system. About 95% of the world now uses the metric system, and the United States is slowly switching from English to metric. For example, the automobile industry has adopted metric fasteners and we buy our soda in two-liter bottles. 

Sometimes the British are obstinate about the change from English to metric units. Greengrocer Steve Thoburn went to jail for refusing to switch from pounds to kilograms. 

We will assume that values derived ftom calculations are not exact unless otherwise indicated. (With one exception, the numbers relating English to metric units that you will see in this text have been calculated and rounded, so they are not exact. The exception is 2.54 cm/1 in. The 2.54 comes from a definition.)... 

The conversion of a quantity expressed in units of one system to an equivalent quantity in the other system (English to metric or metric to English) requires a bridging conversion unit. Examples are shown in Table 1.3. 

Arts. We require a factor for conversion from English to metric volume, i.e., 1 qt = 946 mL. 

Arts. This is a conversion from English to metric length. The conversion factor that most people seem to best remember is centimeters/inch 2.54 cm = 1 in (exactly), so let us express the problem using that factor. We shall convert miles to yards, then yards to feet, then feet to inches, then inches to centimeters, and from there to kilometers ... 

Conversion Chart (English to metric units and vice... 

TD = Transverse direction, and direction of uniaxial orientation. See the appendix for English to metric conversions. 

English, English to metric, general, temperature factors) ... 

Figure 7-15. An example of pressure loading on plastic melt during injection molding (see Appendix B for English to metric conversions).

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