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Unit Conversions

Changing one unit scale to a different unit scale.

Example: Changing feet to inches. 1 ft to 12 inches (or $\frac{1\ ft}{12\ in}$ ). Both feet and inches are units of distance. kg ≠ ft

New example: How tall is a 2.17 meter high ceiling when measured in feet?

The way to convert/change this value to feet is by using a conversion factor (a special fraction)

conversion factor: $3.28\ \frac{ft}{m}$

original value: 2.17 m

The converse: original value × conversion factor

$2.17\ m\ \times\ \frac{3.28\ ft}{m}\ =\ 7.12\ ft$

*Note that this conversion factor is also useful for converting between feet and meters

$\frac{3.28\ ft}{m}\ \Rightarrow\ \frac{1\ m}{3.28\ ft}$

original value × conversion factor

$7.12\ ft \times\ \frac{1\ m}{3.28\ ft}\ =\ 2.17\ m$

kg → lb

___ $lb$ × ___ $\frac{kg}{lb}$ = ___ $kg$