Omrekening van eenheden

Unit conversion is the process of converting units from one unit to another.

The SI system of units are the universally accepted standard units for physical quantities. But a few countries, including the US, sometimes use a different set of units known as English units.

Often, a single physical quantity can be expressed in different but equivalent units. For instance, an object’s length can be expressed in meters or centimeters, where 1 meter represents the same amount of length as 100 centimeters or the mass of an object can be expressed in grams or kilograms, where 1 kilogram equals 1000 grams.

The conversion between such equivalent units is facilitated by means of a unit conversion factor.

For instance, length in meters or centimeters can be interconverted, using conversion factors: 1 meter per 100 centimeters and 100 centimeters per 1 meter. The ratio of choice depends on the desired unit in the result.

Consider a 500-centimeter tall giraffe. To express its height in meters, both numbers and units should be multiplied by the appropriate conversion factor.

The numbers yield the product quantity, 5, and the units cancel out each other, except meters. Thus, the height of the giraffe is equal to 5 meters.