Contents
7 feet under the keel is how many in meters? 99 degrees Fahrenheit is how much Celsius? How many grams are in two ounces and inches in five meters? How many minutes in a week and grams in a tablespoon?
If you’ve ever dealt with such conversions of units of measure, then you may remember how much trouble such a seemingly simple task delivers. If you have a computer with Internet access at hand, then you can, of course, use Yandex:
…or Google:
Or you can use Microsoft Excel, or rather, the undeservedly little-known unit conversion function CONVERTER (CONVERT) from category Engineering (Engineering):
With a huge wealth of possibilities, the syntax of this function is extremely simple:
=OVERVIEW(Number; Old_units; New_units)
Where
- Number – value in old units to be converted
- Old_units и New_units – special text codes of units of measurement, consisting of a multiplier-prefix (kilo-, mega-, nano-, etc.) and codes, in fact, of a system of measures of various types (length, weight, pressure, etc.)
So, for example, the function
=CONVERTER(12, “km”, “ft”)
will turn 12 kilometers into 39370 feet, and
=OVER(5;»elt»;»oz»)
will convert 5 deciliters to 16,907 ounces
The beauty is that this function understands the vast majority of existing units of measurement – the new Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 helpfully suggests their codes in the drop-down list when entering arguments:
If you still have Excel 2003 or older versions, then the code you need can be found in the Excel web help on the Microsoft website or in this list:
Weight and mass:
- Gram – “g”
- Slang — «sg»
- Mass pound (English) – “lbm”
- U (atomic mass unit) – “u”
- ounce (ozm)
Distance:
- Meter – “m”
- Statutory mile – “mi”
- Nautical mile – “Nmi”
- Inch — «in»
- ft – “ft”
- Yard – “yd”
- Angstrom – “ang”
- Pica (1/72 inch) – “pica”
Time:
- Year – “yr”
- Day – “day”
- Time — “hr”
- Minute — «mn»
- Second — «sec»
Pressure:
- Pascal – “Pa” (or “p”)
- Atmosphere — «atm» (or «at»)
- Millimeter of mercury – “mmHg”
Force:
- Newton – “N”
- Dina – “dyn” (or “dy”)
- Pound Force – “lbf”
Energy:
- Joule – “J”
- Erg — «e»
- Thermodynamic calorie – “c”
- International calorie – “cal”
- Electron volt – “eV” (or “ev”)
- Horsepower-hour – “HPh” (or “hh”)
- Watt-hour — «Wh» (or «wh»)
- Pound-foot – “flb”
- BTU (British Thermal Unit) – “BTU” (or “btu”)
Power:
- Horsepower “HP” (or “h”)
- Watt «W» (or «w»)
Magnetism:
- Tesla “T”
- gauss “ga”
Temperature:
- Degree Celsius “C” (or “cel”)
- Fahrenheit “F” (or “fah”)
- Degrees Kelvin “K” (or “kel”)
Measures of liquids:
- teaspoon “tsp”
- Tablespoon “tbs”
- Fluid ounce “oz”
- cup
- American pint “pt” (or “us_pt”)
- British pint “uk_pt”
- qt
- Gallon «gal»
- Liter “l” (or “lt”)
Some of the above unit designations may be preceded by a prefix multiplier, for example:
- km – kilometer
- nm – nanometer (ayy, Skolkovo, hello!)
- kcal – kilocalorie, etc.
A complete list of prefixes can be found there – in the Excel web help on the Microsoft website
PS
- Unit codes and prefixes are case sensitive, i.e. when entering codes, watch out for lowercase and uppercase letters, otherwise you risk getting an error instead of a result.
- If you have Excel 2003 or older and can’t find the category Engineering and function CONVERTER (CONVERT) in the list of functions – then you need to first connect the add-on Analysis package, which includes this function. To do this, go to the menu Service – Add-ons (Tools — Add-Ins) and check the box next to Analysis package (Analysis Toolpak).