We’re in a heady time for technology spending; indeed, it has been estimated that global tech expenditure will reach $11.47 trillion by 2026, compared to the $8.51 million seen in 2022. This would constitute a 7.75% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over five years.
It isn’t exactly “news”, of course, that the technological landscape of the 2020s is a deeply globally interconnected one.
However, something else that people engaged with technology should be in no doubt about, is the critical role of unit conversions in ensuring the safety and success of all manner of design, engineering, and technological processes.
The Ability to Perform Accurate Unit Conversions Is Crucial
There has been much historical debate about the respective merits of the metric and imperial systems when it comes to all manner of applications. If you have participated in such debate, or converted measures yourself, it may well have been in relation to a fairly “mundane” aspect of day-to-day life, such as when trying to master a recipe.
However, in various other contexts, a failure to carry out accurate unit conversions could have literally fatal consequences.
Some readers of this article may, for instance, recall the fate of the NASA spacecraft the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999, when the robotic space probe entered Mars’ atmosphere at the wrong trajectory, resulting in it burning up. An ensuing investigation discovered the disaster was caused by pound-seconds (imperial) not having been converted to newton-seconds (metric).
When it comes to so many different tech projects and processes, length conversions play an imperative role. Such conversions matter because:
- They allow for easier collaboration between individuals and teams that may be based, in many cases, in different parts of the world
- They allow for the utmost design and manufacturing accuracy to be achieved, thereby ensuring proper fit and function
- They help eliminate any scope for confusion within a project or company that could otherwise be caused when the measurement systems used are inconsistent
- They help avoid the serious safety implications that can arise due to incorrect measurements in such fields as aviation and healthcare.
Are You Remembering to Execute Vital Length Conversions?
Focusing specifically on length, the metric system entails length being measured in millimetres (mm), centimetres (cm), metres (m), and kilometres (km). However, if the imperial system is followed, the units of miles, yards, feet, and inches are used to measure length.
Whether the technology project on which you are working requires you to perform length conversions within the metric or imperial system (for example, converting metres to kilometres) or from one system to another system (such as converting miles to kilometres), it is vital that you remember to do them.
Naturally, you will also need to know how to undertake the relevant length conversions. This might entail you simply familiarising yourself with the pertinent manual calculation – an obvious example being that to convert metres to centimetres, you multiply the original number by 100. In this case, one metre would be 100 centimetres.
Another possibility is that you look up an online calculator for the particular conversion you need to make. Indeed, a given website that you come across for this purpose may also make available other tools such as an AWG conversion calculator, or an Ohm’s Law calculator for voltage, resistance, and current, to further support you with various design, engineering, and technological processes.
Hopefully, this article will have served as a useful reminder of the critical role the right length conversions can play in the realisation of successful tech projects. By adopting a proactive and vigilant approach to unit conversions, you can bring vital clarity and greater ease to your own development processes, with resultant considerable benefits for the end user of your products.
