St. Cirq -- you've it the other way around, I think.

1 mile is approximately 1.6 km = 8/5 km.
1 km = 5/8 mile.

that's right but St Cirq has it correct, I think you'd aren't reading or understanding what she wrote.

I don't do this complicated two step stuff, either, dropping decimal pts, multiplying first by one no. then another, etc. This is simple math since 1 km is approx .6 mile. If one knows basic algebra, you can go from miles to km and back. I just divide the km by .6 to get miles, as that's what I want to do in Europe. (It is actually .62 mile, which is why the 5/8 thing works).

There is a real neat online web site that converts anything, though, called www.onlineconversion.com

Hm... Now, Christina, he/she wrote:

"The way I learned it was to multiply miles by 5 and divide by 8 to get kilometers. Still works for me."

Ok. Take an example. 1 mile. Multiply that by 5. Divide by 8. You get 5/8 or 0.625.

That's not right. It should be 1.6.

He/She inverted miles and kilometers.

Did I read this wrong?

Yes, 1 km is approximately .6 miles. So you multiply, not divide, kms by .6 to get miles. I'm pretty math-impaired, but it becomes second nature after a while.

No, 111op, I think it's you who have it backwards. Or perhaps I have lost my mind.

I stand by what I wrote. StCirq, can you follow your instructions and give us a calculated example?

As I wrote, 1 km = 0.625 = 5/8 mile.
1 mile = 1.6 km.

Your recipe, if I follow it, when converting 1 mile to 1 km, will give a number smaller than 1.

RufusTFirefly, you might just have me there - I have to admit that your approach ("metrics are boring") has a certain offbeat appeal. So why not go the whole hog and return to pounds, shillings and pence? Being old enough to remember that system (as well as Imperial measurements) I can tell you that learning to subtract £4.18s.7-1/2d (spoken as "four pounds eighteen and sevenpence-ha'p'ny" from £8.6s.4d ("eight pounds six and fourpence") gives a whole new meaning to excitement in primary school.

Actually I wrote my post straight after trying to help an American visitor deal with Australian petrol (gas) pricing, a multi-step process leading from AU$ per litre to US$ per US gallon (3.785 litres). I decided that life was complicated enough without that, so I'm happy to get my kicks in other ways. But as you guys say, diff'rent strokes.....

Pat, one thing I noticed while driving in the US is that even though I knew very well that 100 miles to the next town was 160 km, at another level what lodged in my brain was "one hour" when I saw the "100" sign, with the result that those 100 miles tended to drag. So, look on the bright side - you might be pleasantly surprised at how fast you get around Ireland. As long as you get the right sign, of course.

Sorry, St. Cirq, you haven't lost your mind, but you are misstating this. Let's break this down a bit more. (I have to go through a process like this every time I first learn to a convert to any currency, or else it doesn't penetrate my skull.)

Multiplying times 5 and then dividing by 8 is really just multiplying times 5/8. (Remember when you first learned to multiply times a fraction?) Multiplying miles times 5/8 would be correct if 1 mile were about 5/8 kms. But it's not. One mile is about 8/5 kilometers. Miles are longer than kms, which is why any given distance has fewer miles than kms.

So for miles to kilometers, multiply by 8/5; for kilometers to miles (which was the original question), multiply by 5/8.

And that's why I find .6 easier to work with and close enough for me!

RufusTFirefly, you might just have me there - I have to admit that your approach ("metrics are boring") has a certain offbeat appeal. So why not go the whole hog and return to pounds, shillings and pence? Being old enough to remember that system (as well as Imperial measurements) I can tell you that learning to subtract £4.18s.7-1/2d (spoken as "four pounds eighteen and sevenpence-ha'p'ny" from £8.6s.4d ("eight pounds six and fourpence") gives a whole new meaning to excitement in primary school.

Actually I wrote my post straight after trying to help an American visitor deal with Australian petrol (gas) pricing, a multi-step process leading from AU$ per litre to US$ per US gallon (3.785 litres). I decided that life was complicated enough without that, so I'm happy to get my kicks in other ways. But as you guys say, diff'rent strokes.....

Pat, one thing I noticed while driving in the US is that even though I knew very well that 100 miles to the next town was 160 km, at another level what lodged in my brain was "one hour" when I saw the "100" sign, with the result that those 100 miles tended to drag. So, look on the bright side - you might be pleasantly surprised at how fast you get around Ireland. As long as you get the right sign, of course.

I was absent the day they taught fractions and algebra. I simply deduct 1/3 off the Km and get pretty close to the Mi. Can't be bothered to add, then divide and with decimal points thrown in somewhere - oh, pleeeese! I don't really worry if I'm off a mile or two - it's close enough. Simplify things.

Km to miles -

Divide by 10
Multpily answer by 6

StCirq is wrong. 111op is correct.

This is a trivial conversion. Think about it. If London is 50 miles away from Cambridge, it's 80 kilometres away (roughly). Therefore to convert FROM miles TO kilometres, your conversion factor must make the answer BIGGER.

Therefore when StCirq states "multiply miles by 5 and divide by 8 to get kilometers.", you are multiplying miles (the smaller value) by 5 then dividing by 8. In my example that would mean take your original 50 miles, multiply by 5 to get 250 and then "...divide by 8 to get kilometers." which comes to just over 31km.

Thus StCirq believes 50 miles is equivalent to 31 kilometers/kilometres. The world is getting smaller, for sure, but the math(s) isn't getting any better...

Thanks Jimbo. The first thing I did when I came to work today was to check what had happened to this thread (which seemed to have temporarily disappeared. I thought that some overnight flame wars had caused Fodor's to pull the thread. :-)

Clearly, I have lost my mind. It must have been the limoncello cheesecake.

its real simple :::::

Kilometers / divided by 1.6 / equals and this is your answer for miles.

Miles / multiply by 1.6 / equals
and this is your answer for Kilometers.

theres nothing more and its that simple folks.
enjoy

Ok, I have that. Now, how do I convert Farenheit to Celsius?

F = (9/5) times C + 32
C = (5/9) times (F - 32)

Or maybe it's easier to have some examples:

0C = 32F (freezing point)
10C = 50F
20C = 68F
30C = 86F
100C = 212F (boiling point)

After skimming the above posts, I agree that it would be nice to use an online converter:

www.onlineconversion.com

Multiply the KM by 0.6--10Km = 6 miles. It is close enough to one half if you want to approximate as you go.