Appendix

Converting Units

1.1 UNITS, MULTIPLES, AND know how much fertilizer to put on in

CONVERSION BETWEEN SYSTEMS
OF UNITS
Any physical variable has units. You weigh
70 kg, have two eyes, and drive your car
around town at 50 km per hour. Missing out
the units on any of these terms can cause
considerable confusion ("I was only doing 50,
M'Lud").
It is essential to state the units of any anything
you calculate, and to be able to convert
between units. For example, many farmers
cwt/acre, (or bags per acre) but when it is sold
in kg, some may be unsure exactly how much
to buy.
Most countries are committed nowadays to
the metric system, so that units such as inches
(in), feet, yards, acres, pounds (lb), hundred­
weight (cwt) and tons may eventually
disappear. However, many agriculturalists still
use the old Imperial units. This appendix (see
Tables 1 and 2) lists the conversion factors,
and also gives you a method of converting
without making mistakes.

Table 1 Intemationally agreed multiples and sub-multiples

Factor by which the Symbol Typical
unit is multiplied Prefix # « «
examples
One thousand million million 10^^ Peta ρ Petajoule (PJ)
One million million (billion** )W Tera τ Terajoule (TJ)
One thousand million 10' Giga G Gigahertz(GHz)
One million 10^ Mega Μ Megawatt (MW)
One thousand 10^ kilo k kilometre (km)
(One hundred*) (10^) (hecto) (h) hectometre (hm)
(Ten*) (10^) (deca) (da) decagramme (dag)
Unity 10^ - - metre (m)
(One tenth*) (10-^) (deci) (d) decimetre (dm)
(One hundredth*) (10-^) (centi) (c) centimetre (cm)
One thousandth 10-^ milli m milligramme (mg)
One millionth 10-' micro microsecond (/xs)
One thousand millionth 10-^ nano η nanosecond (ns)
One million millionth
(one billionth**) 10-^^ pico Ρ picofarad (pF)
One thousand million millionth 10"^^ femto f femtojoule (fJ)
One million million millionth 10-'' atto a attojoule (aJ)
Not recommended multiples.
European billion. USA billion is 10^. For this reason the word billion is not recommended.
Note that it matters whether or not the symbol is a capital letter or a lower case letter.
Thus Ρ = Peta = 10^^ while ρ = pico = 10 "

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Force
Table 2 Conversion of units to SI
1 pound force = 4.448 Ν
Length 1 dyne = 10"' Ν
1 inch = 0.0254 m 1 poundal = 0.138 Ν
= 25.4 mm
1 foot = 0.3048 m Pressure
1 yard = 0.9144 m 1 psi = 6.895x10^ Ν m - '
1 mile = 1.60934 km = 6.895 kPa
1 Atmosphere = 1.01325x10^ Ν m - '
Area 1 bar = 10^ Ν m - 2
1 square inch = 6.45x10"^ m' 1 Atmosphere = 760 mm Hg
1 square foot = 9 . 2 9 x 1 0 " ^ m^ = 29.92 ins Hg
1 square yard = 0.836 m^ 1 Ν m-2 = 1 Pascal (Pa)
1 square mile = 2.59 X l O W 1 metre head of
= 2.59 km' water = 9.81 χ 10^ Ν m - 2
1 acre = 4.047 X 10^ m '
= 0.4047 ha
Work and Energy
1 hectare = 10^ m '
1 Kilowatt hour
= 2.47 acres
(kW h) = 3.6 X lO^J = 3.6 MJ
1 BTU (British
Volume
Thermal Unit) = 1055 J
1 cubic inch = 1.6387 x 10 " ^ m^
= Energy to raise 1 lb of
= 0.00164 litres
water 1°F
1 cubic foot = 0.0283 m^ = 28.3 litres
1 erg = 10"'J
1 gallon (UK) = 4.54609 x 10 " ^ m^
1 electron volt = 1.602x10"^^ J
= 4.546 litres
1 GHU
= Volume of 10 lb
(Centigrade
of water
Heat Unit) = 4186 J
1 gallon (USA) = 3.78544 x 10 " ^ m^
= Energy to raise 1 kg of
= 3.785 litres
water 1°G
= 0.83268 gallon (UK)
1 ft lb = 1.356 J
1 cubic yard = 0.7646 m^
1 Calorie = 4.186 J
1 bushel = 36.37 litres
= 8 gallons (UK)
Power
Velocity 1 Horse-power
1 mph = 0.4470 m s - 1 746 W
(HP)
1 foot per 1.356 W
1 ft lb/sec
second 0.3048 m s"^ 1 W
1 J
1 knot 0.5144 m s"^
Tennperature
Mass
1 lb = 0.4536 kg (Fahrenheit) 0.555556°G
1 ton (Imperial) = 1016 kg 5/9°C
1 slug = 14.59 kg Temperature
1 tonne (°C) • 5/9 (Temperature
(metric) = 1000 kg (°F)-32)
1°K (Kelvin) : 1°C
Density Temperature
- 3
1 Ib/cu ft = 16.02 k g m " (°K) • Temperature
1 Ib/cu inch = 2.768X lO^kgm"^ (°C) +273.16
1 lb/gallon = 0.0998 kg4itre

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 Area formula App 1.3

Other Combined Units 60x1.609x1,000 m

1 cwt/acre = 125.53 kg^ia 3,600 s
= 26.8 m s"^

1.2 A METHOD FOR CONVERTING UNITS

Sometimes it can be hard to remember
whether to mukiply or divide by a conversion
factor. The method below is a foolproof
method of ensuring that the conversion is
done correctly. 1.3 AREA FORMULA
The trick is to multiply by one!
It works like this: Suppose we wish to convert
Triangle, sides a, b, c (see figure):
15 inches (in) to cm. We know that there are
2.54 cm in one inch. To convert a length of
15 inches to cm we first write: Area = 0.5 χ Base χ Height
2.54 cm 1 in
= 1 and = 1
1 in 2.54 cm or A = 0.5 x b x h
Now, we multiply by 1, choosing either the
first or second fraction so that the dimension Alternatively,
(ie the inches) term we want to remove
cancels. Thus:
A = (s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c))
2.54 cm
15 in = 15 i n x = 28.1 cm
1 in
where s = V^(a + b + c)
This looks like a difficult way of doing
something easy. For a very simple conversion
like this it is! However, the method works for Circle, radius r, diameter d:
more difficult conversions too. For example,
when there is more than one unit to be
converted a series of factors may be used so TTd^

that all the old units are eliminated. For Α = π r^ =

example: convert 60 mph (miles per hour) to
metres per sec.
From conversion tables Trapezium, sides y i , y2. width d:
1.609 km 1 mile 1 hour
1=
1 mile 1.609 km 3,600 s A = 0.5d(yi+y2)
3,600 s 1,000 m 1 km
1 hour 1 km 1,000 m Irregular Area (eg, PQJIS in Figure Al.l):
Choosing the appropriate unity terms
60 miles/hour (a) Trapezium formula:
60 miles 1.609 km 1,000 m
1 hour 1 mile 1 km
yi+yn

1 hour A = d( + y 2 + y3 + y4 + ...-Hyn-i)

3,600 sees

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 Agñcultural and horticultural engineenng

This is called the trapezium formula. The area must be divided up into a series of sections of
equal width, and the distances shown in the figure must be measured. Note that y i and yn are
the first and last measurements at the very ends of the base line. They may be zero, but should
still be labelled and counted.

(b) Simpson's formula

This gives a more accurate answer. The area is the sum of the end ordinates ( y i and yn), plus
four times the sum of the even ordinates (yi, y4, ye, etc) plus two times the odd ordinates (ya,
, yn-2), all multiplied by d and divided by three. There must be an odd number of ordinates
for this formula to be used.

Y2 V4 Vn-I Yn

d d

Base line

Figure A 1 . 1 Area calculation for triangles and irregular areas.

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