When Traveling Abroad, Use Distance Conversion to Calculate How Far You Need to Go

Travelers to every continent on the Earth will find it useful to understand the metric conversion of distances. Unless you are traveling in the United States, Liberia or Myanmar, all of which utilize the Imperial units of measurement, you will need to know distance conversion to the metric system. You can do the math yourself, or you can choose to use a couple of handy metric conversion helpers to make the job easier.

Distance conversion becomes very important if you are driving while on your trip. You will need to know the distances between locations so that you can plan how long it will take to arrive at your new location. It is pretty simple to come to a rough estimate of distance when you know that in the metric system distance is measured in kilometers, and kilometers, as well as all metric measurement units, are calculated in multiples of ten.

Here's the bottom line--a kilometer equals 0.62 miles. What that means is that if you divide the mileage you wish to travel by 1.6, you will get the distance conversion of kilometers to miles. Here is an example of how it works: let's say you are vacationing in Greece, and you decide to drive from Athens out to Piraeus in order to catch a flight to one of the smaller outlying islands. It's a fairly small number, only 8.2 kilometers according to the road signs, and which, when calculated using the distance conversion formula, you discover that the distance is a little over 5 miles, confirming that it will be a quick trip.

Some people are not mathematically oriented, and if that describes you then rest assured that there are easier ways to perform distance conversion. A distance conversion calculator or a distance conversion table might be what helps you make the switch to metric conversion.

A distance conversion calculator, which can be online or an actual hand-held calculator with a conversion function, makes distance conversion a snap, because you simply plug in the numbers and it does the math for you. A distance conversion table can be printed out before you take your trip, and you can simply carry it with you and consult it whenever you need to perform distance conversion to look up the specific conversion you want.
Susan Slobac is an avid supporter of extended learning. She is active in helping educators with an interest in teaching internationally, and her experience includes development of metric conversion curriculum.