General Cycling Discussion - Km/miles converter

This converter (http://www.psinvention.com/zoetic/convert.htm) is great for converting km to miles, kg to lbs etc or the opposite way around. But Joe, shouldn’t at least a km/miles converter be featured on the forums? That would be handy...

Out of curiousity I decided to do a little checking. As far as I can tell, the only countries not using the metric system are the United States, Liberia, and Burma.

Unfortunately, living in Canada where we still get a bit of both, I have had to be fluent in both and have most of the conversions memorized.

The UK is at least mixed. Road signs are in miles, etc. But I believe that a recent law mandated metric in the sale of foodstuffs. Not really sure about other areas

Anyone from the UK?

Cheers...Gary

Originally posted by swekarl
This converter (http://www.psinvention.com/zoetic/convert.htm) is great for converting km to miles, kg to lbs etc or the opposite way around. But Joe, shouldn’t at least a km/miles converter be featured on the forums? That would be handy...

Good idea, where would you like the link? Im sick of running out to my truck to find out how fast 60km/hr is! :lol:

Originally posted by gmason
The UK is at least mixed. Road signs are in miles, etc. But I believe that a recent law mandated metric in the sale of foodstuffs. Not really sure about other areas

Anyone from the UK?

Cheers...Gary

Very mixed, most of us think mixed as well.

Roads are in miles, food is now in metric (despite protests) but beer is still by the UK pint. I'm as comfortable measuring things in inches as centimetres, but exclusively use centigrade for temperature. If I'm cooking I'm more likely to use imperial, but occasionally use metric.

Richard

Real Ale in real pint glasses with the Queen's mark on. Badger Best, Gales HSB, Theakston's XB, ... , and an Old Pec to finish off the evening.

Lord, I need another trip to England. :(

Cheers...Gary

It sounds as though a "pub crawl" is being organized...
I'm there! :beer:




Need to stop at Fullers too... ... ...

Originally posted by Joe Gardner
Good idea, where would you like the link?
Maybe on the page where you write your posts, as an option to click and automatically get the distance or speed in both metric and mile. Otherwise I guess it should be easy to reach, like a small box at the bottom of every page. I realize 90 % of the users are American and therefore don’t have the problem, but still...

Another suggestion: Celsius to Farenheit conversions are useful.

I often use this page for conversions. It is a bit cumbersome, but it works.

http://www.eldar.org/~ben/convert.html

Speed and distance conversions are very easy -- for most purposes, one can simply apply a 3:5 or, better, a 5:8 ratio, since 3.1mi is pretty close to 5km. Interestingly, a 1km x 1mi rectangle is a good approximation of a "golden" rectangle, which has proportions of 0.618:1 = 1:1.618.

For nuts and bolts, 11mm = 7/16", 16mm = 5/8", and 35mm = 1-3/8".

Bicycles and American Cars continue to be fascinating hybrids of metric and English threads and diameters.

On a related note, here's a nifty PC freeware utility for doing pretty much any conversion (how many parsecs did I ride last year?):convert.exe (http://www.joshmadison.com/software/convert/)

I used to think we should convert to metric, but I've decided that it's more fun to be different. And I like the different systems. I can remember .61 times km/hr to mph and 2.2 lbs per kg. Not that I understand converting weight to mass.
Joe
:beer:

Originally posted by Joe Gardner


Good idea, where would you like the link? Im sick of running out to my truck to find out how fast 60km/hr is! :lol:

The easiest way is to remember that 1 Km = .6 miles. This can be translated into speeds pretty easily with simple multiplication or division.

For example, your 60 kmh would equal 36 mph.
60 kph x .6 = 36 mph
Even simpler: 10 kmh = 6 mph (10 kmh x .6 = 6 mph)

Conversely, 20 mph would equal 33.3 kmh, which is done by dividing. 20 mph / .6 = 33.3 kph
or a simpler one: 6 mph = 10 kmh (6 mph / .6 = 10 kph)

It all revolves around the .6 .

Hopefully this cleared things up for you. :cool:

Signposts in rural Ireland have a novel approach to the conversion of miles to km.
Take a pot of white paint. Paint out the word Miles.
Take a pot of black paint. Insert the letters km.

Im afraid being a real saddo, I use the unix utility "units" to do any conversions. rods to nautical miles anyone? metric tons to carats?

Originally posted by joeprim
Not that I understand converting weight to mass.

Mass is an inherent property of matter. Weight is its force of gravitational attraction to the nearest planet. At any given altitude above the earth, weight and mass are proportional, and we can freely equate 2.2 lbs (weight/force) with 1 kg (mass). It is more accurate to say that every kg of mass weighs 2.2 lbs. In outer space, your weight will indeed drop towards 0, but your mass will be unchanged.

This is the one place the English system of units wins out over the metric system on a technicality. A typical spring scale, whether calibrated in kg or lbs, actually responds directly to weight, rather than to mass.

Imperial measures were made illegal in Australia in 1973, so even old people can't remember most imperial measurements.

It's actually illegal to broadcast anything in non-standard measurements (such as Imperial) in Australia - a large fine or even imprisonment.

I'm almost absolutely certain that all nuts and bolts on cars, motorcycles and pushbikes are metric nowadays.