If you are like me, and from the US, traveling to pretty much anywhere is a challenge right from the start with using the Metric System. It’s so foreign to us and it seems so complicated at the beginning. But after a while being in a foreign country, things just tend to get easier naturally and soon you pick up on little techniques to help yourself get around a little better. For me, converting became so much easier after I understood the little cheat system I came up with. I’m sure other people came up with either the same or similar techniques as well, but as for my brain, this is how it was easiest for me.

Meters to Feet:

This is the easiest one. You simply just times Meters by 3 and generally you are in the same proximity. So I jumped off of a 15 meter waterfall. So really quickly I times it by 3 and get 45 feet. Now I say approximately. The exact is 49 feet and 2.55 inches. For a quick estimate you won’t be exact but you can roughly get the idea.

Celsius to Fahrenheit:

For a quick, rough idea, I just times the Celsius number by 2 and add 30. So if its 20 degrees Celsius, I times it by 2 which is 40 and add 30 which is 70. The actual calculation comes out to be 68 degree Fahrenheit. It’s pretty close.

Kilometers to Miles:

This one is a bit more tricky but what I do is divide the Kilometers in half and then add about 10 percent. So if it were 50 kilometers I would divide by half, 25 and then add 10% so about 30. The exact is 31 miles.

Lets do another one. If it were 10 Kilometers. Divide by half, 5 and add a few so I would guess 7. The exact is 6.21.

Lets say its 150 Kilometers. Divide by half, 75 and add. The larger the number the more you add. So I would guess 90? It’s exactly 92 miles.

When your dealing with two digit numbers, your adding maybe 10. When your dealing with 3 digit numbers like 100 or more, start adding 20 or more.

I hope this makes sense and I hope this helps you out on your travels!!!!!!

Thank you so much!!!!!!

Sincerely,

Shelly/Livingonthedirt