Clarification on unit conversions
Moderators: Chem_Mod, Chem_Admin
-
- Posts: 36
- Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:02 am
- Been upvoted: 1 time
Clarification on unit conversions
To convert from meters to nanometers, we just multiply the number of meters by 10^9 right? And then to convert meters to picometers, we just multiply by 10^12?
-
- Posts: 38
- Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:05 am
Re: Clarification on unit conversions
Yes, but just make sure that the initial unit is meters because if it is something different like say centimeters then the conversion would be off. You could also technically just move the decimal over 9 times or 12 times to get the correct conversion value but that seems like more of a hassle compared to just multiplying them.
-
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:01 am
- Been upvoted: 1 time
Re: Clarification on unit conversions
Yes! That's also the same thing is dividing by 10^-9 for nm or 10^-12 for picometers, if that is easier to visualize for dimensional analysis
-
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:17 am
Re: Clarification on unit conversions
I would just like to underscore the importance of visualization as the previous response has stated. Before converting, I find it very helpful to compare the size of both units. For example, if I were to convert meters to kilometers, I would first realize that a kilometer is a larger unit than a meter. That is to say, many meters fit into a kilometer, specifically 1000 meters. As a result, when you are converting meters to kilometers, it would make sense to have a decimal value for kilometers. 1 m converts to .001 km.
-
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:17 am
Re: Clarification on unit conversions
Right! A meter can fit a lot more nanometers (10^9 nanometers for every meter) so it would make sense that the number of nanometers is greater, therefore multiplying the number of meters (by 10^9) to get nanometers makes sense.
Return to “SI Units, Unit Conversions”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests