How to Convert English Units to Metric Units

Some might believe otherwise, but countries other than the United States do not use the metric system. Although the United Kingdom uses metric units for temperature and volume, it measures its lengths in feet, yards and miles. In fact, the official name for the latter units -- Imperial -- derives from the former British Empire. Converting English units to metric units is a simple and straightforward process.

Instructions

1

Look up conversion factors for the require unit. As an example on weights, if you need to convert eight stones to kilograms but know only that one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds, you'll first need to find out how to convert stones to pounds. For an example on distance, knowing that one foot equals 3.28 meters is not helpful if you need to convert 5.65 miles to meters, unless you also know that one mile equals 5,280 feet.

2

Complete intra-English unit conversion. For the weight example, you would first convert your weight in stone to pounds -- 8 x 14 = 112 -- eight stones equal 112 pounds. In the distance example, 5.65 miles equal 29,832 feet (5.65 x 5,280).

3

Convert from English units to metric units. To conclude the weight example, eight stones equal about 51 kilograms (112 / 2.2). In the distance example, 5.65 miles equal about 9,095 meters (29,832 / 3.28).

4

Standardize metric units, if necessary. While kilograms is the standard metric unit of weight measure, you would likely want to represent a large metric distance such as 9,095 meters in kilometers. Simply divide the meter amount by 1,000 to get its equivalent in kilometers. To conclude the distance example, 5.65 miles equal about 9.1 kilometers (9,095 / 1,000).