Scientific Unit Conversion: A Practical Guide to Metrication

About five years ago I reviewed a book called "Measure for Measure," by Thomas J. Glover, and gave it 4 stars. In it I said: "[I] would recommend it with just one reservation. Unfortunately, the authors were somewhat arbitrary in deciding which units any particular one would be converted to. If I had written this book, I would have included at least the following for each unit: (1) All other units in the SAME system (i. e., if we are talking about a pre-revolutionary French unit of length, all other pre-revolutionary French units of length) and (2) the nearest-sized SI unit. Unfortunately they frequently leave out conversions between units of the same system that would be useful, and often units of the same approximate size are converted to different SI units, making comparisons difficult. (For example, one foot-size unit may be expressed as so many centimeters, while another as such a fraction of a meter.) Both of these omissions can be circumvented by using a calculator and working with what these authors have chosen to include, but the book would be easier to use if they had done what I would have." This book gets its fifth star primarily because it has the feature that I said _should_ have been in Glover's book. It is more comprehensive as well. With these factors, if Glover's book got four stars, this book _has_ to get 5. It has everything I loved in Glover's book, without the shortcomings. The book is not quite perfect; it has three "atomic mass units" listed (based on C-12, O-16, and H-1) but fails to include the old chemical atomic mass unit I grew up with (based on the abundance-weighted average of the oxygen isotopes), but it is so much more comprehensive than any other book that I still have to recommend it as the best.

Tired of looking through books to find the correct conversion factor to another unit? Well, so was I. Since I deal with international engineering contracts, this book saves a great deal of time. It is extremely well formatted and easy to use. This book not only has the usual units, but also Japanese, and ancient systems as well. You won't need any other book - ever. The author challenges you to find a unit not listed, and send it to him for inclusion in the next edition. That alone should give you an idea of how thorough it is! This is a must for any technical field. Well organized, and well worth the price of the book. A real bargin. Also, fun to read. It gives the approved units for various systems, and states which ones are on the phase-out. Good to know if you are doing technical writing, and need to keep your units within the standards listed.