CONVERSION OF UNITS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

 Recognize the SI base units and explain the system of prefixes used with them.
 Convert a value reported in one unit to a corresponding value in a different unit.

People who live in the United States measure weight in pounds, height in feet and inches, and
a car’s speed in miles per hour. In contrast, chemistry and other branches of science use the
International System of Units (also known as SI after Système Internationale d’Unités), which was
established so that scientists around the world could communicate efficiently with each other. Many
countries have also adopted SI units for everyday use as well. The United States is one of the few
countries that has not.

The ability to convert from one unit to another is an important skill. For example, a nurse with 50
mg aspirin tablets who must administer 0.2 g of aspirin to a patient needs to know that 0.2 g equals 200
mg, so 4 tablets are needed. Fortunately, there is a simple way to convert from one unit to another.
Conversion Factor is a number used to change one set of units to another, either by multiplying or
dividing.

BASE SI UNITS

Base (or basic) units, are the fundamental unit of SI. There are seven base units, which are listed
in Table 1, Chemistry uses five of the base units: the mole for amount, the kilogram for mass, the meter
for length, the second for time, and the kelvin for temperature.

Table 1: The Seven Base Units

Property Unit Abbreviation

Length meter m
Mass kilogram kg
Time second s
Amount mole mol
Temperature kelvin K
Electrical current ampere amp
Luminous intensity candela cd

Table 2: SI Derived Units

Property Unit
Area m2
Volume m3
Speed m/s
Acceleration m/s2
Force kg-m/s2 or N
Pressure N/m2 or Pa
Energy N-m or J

Table 3: Unit Conversion Chart

Length Temperature Mass

1 m = 3.28 ft 9 1 kg = 2.204 lb
℉ = ℃ + 32
1 in = 2.54 cm 5 1 oz = 28.35 g
1 mi = 1.609 km 5
℃ = (℉ − 32)
1 yd = 3 ft 9
12 in = 1 ft 𝐾 = ℃ + 273.15
°𝑅 = ℉ + 459.67
Volume Pressure Energy
1 mL = 1 cc 1 atm = 101.325 kPa 1 cal = 4.184 J
1 gal = 3.7854 L 1 atm = 760 mmHg
1000 L = 1 m3 1 atm = 1.01325 bar
1 atm = 14.7 psi
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Table 3: Prefixes Used with SI Units

Multiplicative Factor in
Prefix Abbreviation
Scientific Notation
exa- E x 1018
peta- P x 1015
tera- T x 1012
giga- G x 109
mega- M x 106
kilo- k x 103
hecto h x 102
deca- D x 101
deci- d x 10-1
centi- c x 10-2
milli- m x 10-3
micro- µ x 10-6
nano- n x 10-9
pico- p x 10-12
femto- f x 10-15
atto- a x 10-18

EXAMPLES:

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CONVERSION EXERCISES

1. The average volume of blood in an adult male is 4.7 L. What is this volume in milliliters? In
galloons?
2. A hummingbird can flap its wings once in 18 ms. How many seconds are in 18 ms?
3. Convert 58.2 ms to megaseconds.
4. If you are 170 cm tall, how tall are you in feet?
5. Convert 43.007 mg to kilograms.
6. The pressure inside a calorimeter is around 0.67atm. Convert this into bar.
7. Convert the following measurements into m.
a. 280 cm
b. 56100 mm
c. 3.7 km
8. Convert the following measurements into mL.
a. 0.75 liters
b. 3.2 x 104 μL
c. 0.5 m3
9. How many cubic feet are there in a room measuring 5m x 10m x 2m?
10. The average size of the nucleus of an atom is 1 x 10 -15 m. How big is the nucleus in pm?
11. What is the mass of a 120-lb person in kilograms?
12. If the diameter of a circle is 3 inches, what is its radius in mm?
13. Convert 300 Kelvin into degree Fahrenheit.
14. What is the height in meters of a 5’3″ person?
15. To maintain weight, a woman should only eat 2000 calories per day. If a cup of rice contains
862J, how many cups of rice should be eaten per day?
16. Six gallons of gasoline costs $21.00. How much does one liter of gas cost?
17. The daily salary average rate in the Philippines is around 500 pesos. Compute for the hourly
average rate, given that a day of work consists of 8 hours.
18. A man makes a 27.0 km trip in 16 minutes.
a. How far was the trip in miles?
b. If the speed limit was 55 miles per hour, was the driver speeding?
19. You plan to buy a piece of land with an area of 0.0031 hectares. The owner tells you that the
land costs Php 10000 per square meter. If you have 2.5 million pesos, will it be enough to buy the
land?

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