Slowly and surely the metric system of measurements, with its inherent advantage of simplicity, is moving into North American business lives. In the United States, attached as we are to inches, pints and cubic yards, we already buy soda in liter bottles, and we measure automobile and motorcycle engines in cubic centimeters. Medications are almost always prescribed and delivered using metric measurements.

Eventually we may switch over completely, but until then, unit converters like the ones here remain useful.

Length

Temperature

°C    °F    °K

Area

Volume

Weight

Using Google as a calculator and unit converter.

Metric unit converters for Americans

Cut and paste:

You can cut and paste the numbers below to save a little typing.


1 million =

1000000

10e+6


1 billion =

1000000000

10e+9


1 trillion =

1000000000000

10e+12


1 quadrillion =

1000000000000000

10e+15


The numbers above represent the short scale naming system common in international news and commerce.

Got exponents?


Most calculators cannot read numbers with exponents ( like 1.67x1021  )


With many calculators, including the ones here, you can use this format

1.67e21

to represent the same number.

Cut and paste it to try.

The converters on this page are free from:

www.unitconversion.org the best source of conversion codes on the web.

Often when you are calculating large numbers, you will max out the display capacity of your calculator and it will return odd-looking answers. The “e” in your calculator display stands for “exponent”, and it is actually very helpful.


Suppose your calculator gives you an answer like

1.2e15 or 1.2e-15 in the display.


To write the same number out fully, move the decimal point to the right (
) by 15 spaces, which means we have to add some zeros: 1,200,000,000,000,000. This is one quadrillion two hundred trillion. Or, as you might read it in news articles, 1.2 quadrillion.


If the number after the ‘e’ has a minus sign, move the decimal point to the left (
) by the stated number. Add as many zeros on the left as you need to.
 

What happens if my answer has an ‘e’ in it?