Oil Spill Dispersants: Efficacy and Effects (2005)
Chapter: Appendix D: Definitions and Unit Conversions
D
Definitions and Unit Conversions
Conversions reported in the text conserve the number of significant figures of the original reported value using rules consistent with the NRC report on Oil in the Sea III: Inputs, Fates and Effects (NRC, 2003) and available on the following Massachusetts Institute of Technology website: http://web.mit.edu/10.001/Web/Course_Notes/Statistics_Notes/Significant_Figures.html.
We are reporting everything in metric units except where common or regular usage requires that values be reported in English units. In these cases, metric equivalents are provided in parenthesis.
barrels × 42 = US gallons
liters × 0.264 = US gallons
cubic meters × 264.2 = US gallons
cubic feet × 7.481 = US gallons
liters × 0.0009 = tonnes*
(note tonnes = metric tons)
tonnes × 294 = US gallons*
tonnes × 7.33 = barrels
US gallons × 0.0034 = tonnes*
US gallons × 3.785 = liters
Some common metric unites and their english equivalents:
miles × 1.609 = kilometers
miles × 1.1 = nautical miles
nautical miles × 1.852 = kilometers
feet × 0.304 = meters
nautical miles per hour (knots) × 1.852 = kilometers per hour
miles per hour × 1.609 = kilometers per hour
gallons/acre × 9.35 = liters/hectare
acre × 0.404 = hectare
inches × 25.4 = millimeters
fathom × 1.8288 = meters
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The conversion factor of 294 gallons per tonne is derived from an average specific gravity of 0.83, which corresponds to an API gravity or degree API of 39. Note that API gravity and specific gravity are inversely proportional as per the formulae below. The 294 gallons/tonne conversion unit is also convenient because it happens that 294 gallons = 7 barrels. API = (141.5/sp gr) − 131.5 sp gr = 141.5/(API + 131.5) |
