General questions

1. What are the main features of your converters?

   Our converters support expressions such as the input string "1+2*(3+5)" involving not only basic mathematical operations, but also advanced operations such as sqrt, pow, sin, cos, abs, etc. So our calculators can solve not only unit conversions but math problems involving basic arithmetic and more complicated math. Please refer to the general help section for a complete reference of supported functions.

   Also, our converters seem to be the only ones (to the best of our knowledge) which feature custom handling of all math-related operations involving conversions. The visible result is that, for example, you'll never see numbers like 4.999999 instead of 5 or 4.0000001 instead of 4 when 5 and 4 are the correct conversion results.

   The inputted strings are automatically re-evaluated with every new symbol you type, so there is no need for a separate "Calculate" type button thus saving time.

2. I got an answer that looks like this "4.12e+04" or like this "3e-08". What does that mean?

   Short Answer: The "e" stands for exponent. So 4.12e+04 is a convenient way of saying 4.12*10⁴, or 4120000. If your result was, for example, 3e-08, then the answer would have been 3*10^-8, or 0.00000003

   Long Answer: For your convenience, very large and very small numbers are automatically converted to so-called "scientific notation" (also known as standard index notation or exponential notation). For example, the Earth's mass in scientific notation, will be written as 5.9736e+21, converted from the regular 5973600000000000000000000 number and proton mass as 1.6726e-27, converted from the regular 0.0000000000000000000000000016726 number.

   To convert from scientific notation to a regular number, shift the decimal point in the coefficient to the right if the number after exponent (e) if it is positive and to the left if it is negative. The number in the exponent tells you the number of positions to shift the decimal point. For example, when 2.2e+4 is converted to a regular number, the decimal point is shifted four positions to the right because the exponent is 4. Thus, 2.2e+4 goes to 22000.

3. Is there a way to get a list of conversion factors for the selected category?

   Yes. You can simply input 1 into any source unit input box (which becomes the base unit) in the expanded-style Converter and the calculated values in all other boxes will be the conversion factors. Here is an example, where "mile" is the base unit.

4. Is there an easy way to search for a particular category or unit?

   Yes. Please try our highly interactive categories & units search which gives you results as you type.

5. How can I contribute to your project?

   Probably the easiest way is to tell your friends about it! Also, if you have a website, you are very welcome to link to us.

Webmaster questions

Note: This help section is for those who want to take advantage of our automatic HTML converter code generator which makes it very easy to put any converter on your website.

1. What are the restrictions/requirements of installing your Converters on my website?

   There are no restrictions except that we ask you to kindly put a link back to our site somewhere on the pages with our converters to help promote our valuable, fully free unit conversion resource.

2. Why would I want to install your converters on my website?

   The main reason is to enhance your website with an affordable, easy to use web-based unit conversion calculators to bring your visitors back and to serve them better. The whole process of installing one converter takes only a few minutes. Also, our converters will fully integrate into your landing pages so that visitors will consider them to be part of your web site.

3. Can I modify the created HTML code? And if so, in what ways?

   Yes you can freely modify the created HTML code any way you want. Just make sure the converter is still working. All of your modifications are acceptable as long as the converter continues operating.

4. I've noticed that the generated HTML code references the "converter3.js" file. Can I put this file on my own website?

   Yes. This file together with the category specific files containing conversion factors make up the conversion engine. Generally, there is no need to host them on your website, but if you prefer, there is a fast and easy way to do so. To do so, you need to perform the following two actions:
   
   

   • Upload the conversion engine-related files from the following archive - converter3-engine.zip - to a separate directory of your website, for example, to: http://www.yoursite.com/converter3-engine/ For simplicity, use this directory for these files only so as to not conflict with your site's html files.
   • For every category generated HTML you should locate and replace the following string:

     <script src=http://www.unitconversion.org/converter3/converter3.js></script>

     with the following:

     <script>uc_datapath="http://www.yoursite.com/converter3-engine/"</script><script src=http://www.yoursite.com/converter3-engine/></script>

     Note: This could be easily done in one step with a 3rd party "find and replace" program. Please feel free to contact us if you need further help.

5. I've noticed that the default color of the selected unit inputted string in the interactive conversion table is blue (example). How can I make it a different color, for example, red?

   In the generated code, locate the following string: focuscolor=blue and change blue to the color name you want (for example: red) so that the end string will looks something like this: cat=Temperature;focuscolor=red;focusweight=bold

6. What is the default converter precision and how can I change it?

   The default precision is 9. To apply custom precision, in the generated code, add a custom name/value pair to the name property of <form> element. For example <form name="cat=Length"> should become <form name="cat=Length;precision=7">

7. How can I make a link to the page with the unit converter to contain the unit name which should be autoselected (highlighted) on page load?

   Just add the unit name to the link query string. Example: http://www.unitconversion.org/unit_converter/length.html?unit=mile

   You can even apply the default unit value by adding value=number name/value pair. Example: http://www.unitconversion.org/unit_converter/length.html?unit=mile&value=555

8. Can I place more than one Converter on the same page?

   Yes, you can freely mix different category converters on one page, but we do recommend using a "one page - one converter" strategy so as to not overload the page and not confuse search engines which will rank your web pages according to their main topic - not to mention not confusing your website visitors. For a "one page - one converter" strategy, you need to make the index page with links to individual category converters similar to www.unitconversion.org index page.