Conversion Factors for Soil Testing

Agood engineering practice is to comply factors of conversion into form of tables for easier reference. We oath to think to much inside our mind and will definitely forget it as we thought it is not too important to remember or the units is already given as reference in some cases. In the previous post, compilation of conversion factors between Imperial and SI Units.

This tables of conversion factors, between English (British) and SI Units used for many application especially in soil mechanics field and soil laboratory (plus in-situ) testing. It is useful for application in soil testing via laboratory, as accordance to British Standards, American Society for Testing and Materials or any other standards used as construction specification.

The tables below is pretty much straight forward…

Parameters	SI Units	English Units
Length	1 mm	3.937 x 10-2 in. 3.218 x 10-3 ft
	1 m	39.37 in. 3.281 ft
Area	1 cm2	0.155 in.2 1.076 x 10-3 ft2
	1 m2	1550 in.2 10.76 ft2
Volume	1 cm3	0.061 in.3 3.531 x 10-5 ft3
	1 m3	61023.74 in.3 35.315 ft3
Force	1 N	0.22482 lb
	1 kN	0.22482 kip
Velocity	1 cm/s	1.969 ft/min 1034643.6 ft/year
Stress	1 kN/m2	0.145 lb/in.2 20.89 lb/ft2
Mass	1 kg	2.2046 lb 2.2046 x 10-3 kip
Unit Weight	1 kN/m3	6.367 lb/ft3
Coefficient of Consolidation	1 cm2/s	0.155 in.2/s 2.883 x 103 ft2/month

CCS: Table 2 (a): Conversion from SI Units to English Units

Parameters	English Units	SI Units
Length	1 in	25.4 mm
	1 ft	0.3048 m 304.8 mm
Area	1 in.2	6.4516 x 10-4 m2 6.4516 cm2 645.16 mm2
	1 ft2	929 x 10-4 m2 929.03 cm2 9203 mm2
Volume	1 in.3	16.387 cm3
	1 ft3	0.028317 m3 28317 mm3
Force	1 lb	4.448 N
Velocity	1 ft/s	304.8 mm/s 0.3048 m/s
	1 ft/min	5.08 mm/s 0.00508 m/s
Stress	1 lb/in.2	6.9 kN/m2
	1 lb/ft2	47.88 N/m2
Mass	1 lb	0.4536 kg
Unit Weight	1 lb/ft3	157.06 N/m3
Coefficient of Consolidation	1 in.2/s	6.452 cm2/s
	1 ft2/s	929.03 cm2/s

CCS: Table 2 (b): Conversion from English Units to SI Units

Calculator

The conversion units shown in CCS: Table 2 (a) and (b) above would be our general guideline or reference especially in the field of materials testing. I personally gathered this useful information from various reference as laboratory testing guidelines. With that in mind, hopefully this reference may help and may develop your skill in converting units effectively and accurately…

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