Unit Conversions

Unit Conversions are essential to working in science.
They can be very tricky, especially if working between dimensions, like going from liters to cubic centimeters. Beginners to unit conversions should be careful and procedural when setting up conversions.

The key to conversions is knowing your conversion factors. Conversion factors are numbers that you multiply times your starting value to change your units, and are always equal to 1.

The steps for converting units are below. We'll also do an example, converting 2 kg to g.

STEP 1: Write your starting value with units.

In our case we want to convert 2 kg.
2 kg

STEP 2: Find the correct conversion factor.

Now, to find our conversion factor, we set it up so that when we multiply the factor by the starting number, we get rid of the original units, and are left with our new units. To do this, we want to put our desired unit on the top, and our original unit on the bottom.

# of g/ # ofkg

we know that there are 1000 g in 1 kg, so our conversion factor becomes

1000 g/ 1 kg



STEP 3: Multiply your conversion factor

2 kg * (1000 g/1 kg) = 2 000 g.

Note that becuase the kg units are on the top and the bottom, they cancel out.

Here's a video to help explain things.

[download]