Microsoft Excel

2007
Chapter 10
Converting Units

1
Conversions
 Convert a number from one measurement
system to another.

 For example, the CONVERT function in Excel

can translate a table of distances in miles to a
table of distances in kilometres.

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10.1 Simple conversions
 Conversion into the same physical dimension (length,
power, temperature…etc) is a simple conversion.

 E.g. Conversion from feet (ft) to meters (m) is a simple

conversion since it involves only unit of length.

 When we want to convert from one unit to another, we

multiply by an appropriate unit equivalence factor

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10.1 Simple conversions
 Example 10.1: Convert 2.5 feet into an equivalent number of meters,
using the conversion factor 1ft = 0.3048 m.
 Solution:
 L = 2.5 ft x (0.3048/1 ft) = 0.762 m

 Here, the unit equivalence factor is (0.3048 m/ft)

 When transforming form meters to feet, the unit equivalence factor is

then (1/0.3048 = 3.28084 ft/m)

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10.2 Simple Conversions in
Excel
 Function: =CONVERT(number,“from_unit”,“to_unit”)

 Ex.: =CONVERT(2.5, "ft", "m").

 This function in Excel will do the same job as in Example 10.1.

 Table 10.1 summarises the Excel Unit Abbreviation.

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10.2 Simple Conversions in
Excel
 The unit prefixes in Table 10.2 can be combined with
any metric abbreviation.
 E.g. “k” can be combined with grams “g” to give “kg”.

 The unit abbreviations and prefixes are case sensitive.

 Note: The CONVERT function will accept only

abbreviations with consistent dimensions! For example,
you can convert feet to meters, but not feet to grams.
 Example 10.2 and Example 10.3

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10.2 Simple Conversions in
Excel
 Microsoft Excel Help
contains list of unit
abbreviations that
can be used with the
convert function.

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10.3 Converting Temperatures
 The convert function can convert a single temperature
from one temperature unit to another. However, the
temperature difference must be converted manually.
(see transformations on page 209)

 Example 10.4 and Example 10.5:

 22 °C = 71.6 °F ([°C] = ([°F] − 32) × 5/9) can be done by:
=CONVERT(22,”C”,”F”)

 But a temperature difference of 22 Celsius degrees is equivalent

to a temperature difference of 1.8x22= 39.6 Fahrenheit degrees!

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10.4 Complex Conversions
 Conversions involving multiple units are referred as
complex conversions.

 Conversion from mi/hr to ft/sec, cm3/sec to m3/hr,

etc…are some examples of complex unit conversions.

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10.5 Complex Conversions in Excel
 Example 1: Convert 5 mi/hr to ft/sec.
 We known that 1 mile = 5280 ft and 1hour = 3600 sec.
so 5 mi/hr = (5 x 5280 ft) / (1 x 3600 sec) = 7.333 ft/sec.

 In Excel the conversion can be done as follows:

 =CONVERT(5,"mi","ft")/CONVERT(1,"hr","sec")  7.333

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10.5 Complex Conversions in Excel
 When we have to convert units with a certain exponent,
for example a number from km2 to ft2, the number has to
be kept outside the CONVERT function.

 For example, converting 5 km2 to ft2:

 Correct way: =5*CONVERT(1,"km","ft")^2
 It is WRONG to write: =CONVERT(5,"km","ft")^2, as the number
5 will also be squared itself (so it is like converting 25 km2 to ft2)

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Conversions in Excel
Examples
 Examples:
 Value from km2 to ft2
=Value*CONVERT(1,"km","ft")^2

 Value from ft/sec2 to m/hr2

=Value*CONVERT(1,"ft","m")*CONVERT(1,"hr","sec")^2

 Value from gal/hr to liters/min

=Value*CONVERT(1,"gal","l")/CONVERT(1,"hr","mn")
Or =Value*CONVERT(1,"gal","l")*CONVERT(1,“mn",“hr")
Or =CONVERT(Value,"gal","l")/CONVERT(1,“hr",“mn")
Or =CONVERT(Value,"gal","l")*CONVERT(1,“mn",“hr")

Note: CONVERT(1, “unit1”, “unit2”) = 1/CONVERT(1, “unit2”, “unit1”)

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