Converting Units

Converting units requires that we know the equivalence between them. For example, if we know that 2.54 cm = 1 inch, then it is easy to convert from inches to cm or vice versa.

Remembering that we can always multiply by 1 $\left( \text{in this case with } 1= \frac{ 2.54 \mbox{ cm}}{1 \mbox { in}} \right)$ :

$2 \mbox{ in} \times \frac{ 2.54 \mbox{ cm}}{1 \mbox { in}} = 5.08 \mbox{ cm}.$

Similarly, we can complete more complicated conversions by always multiplying by 1 and cancelling out the units we want to change:

$1 \mbox{ day} \times \frac{ 24 \mbox{ hour}}{\mbox{day}} \times \frac{3600 \mbox{ sec}}{\mbox{hour}} = 24 \times 3600 \mbox{ sec}$

Thus, there are $24 \times 3600 = 86400$ seconds in a day.

Easy Math Editor

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`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
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Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

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Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$