Convert between different units
This converter handles length, weight, volume, and temperature, updating as you type. It covers the metric and imperial units that come up in cooking, travel, DIY, and schoolwork.
Temperature is the one conversion that works differently from the rest. Length and weight scale by simple multiplication, but Celsius and Fahrenheit have different zero points, so converting between them needs an offset as well as a ratio.
Unit confusion is not a trivial problem. NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999 because one team supplied thrust figures in pound-seconds while the receiving software expected newton-seconds, and the spacecraft entered the atmosphere at the wrong altitude.
The practical lesson for everyday work is to write the unit alongside every number rather than assuming context makes it obvious, particularly in recipes and measurements copied between sources that use different systems.
Multiply the Celsius value by 1.8 and add 32. Going the other way, subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit value first, then divide by 1.8. The offset is needed because the two scales have different zero points.
Exactly 2.54. This is a defined value rather than an approximation, which is why all other imperial-to-metric length conversions follow from it.
No, and the difference is substantial. A US gallon is about 3.79 litres while an imperial gallon is about 4.55, so recipes and fuel figures do not transfer between them.
Multiply by 1.6, or add roughly half again. Sixty miles is about ninety-six kilometres, which is close enough for most practical purposes.