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Expert: - 11/5/2006


Question
Can you give me a formula for converting miles per litre to miles per gallon (British Imperial)

Answer
Hi, Gordon,

First, determine the number of liters ... oops -- you are on the other side of the Atlantic, I think, so that's litres in one gallon.

[You will have to look that up -- for the US gallon it's about 3.8 liters per gallon.]

So you will do:

Miles/gallon = miles/liter * liters/gallon.

Writing that in 'fraction' form:
Miles     Miles   litres
------- = ----- * ----------
Gallon    liter   gallon

which is the general way to do a conversion.  Notice that:

1. The 'liters' part seems to cancel, which is how you can be confident you have things in the right order.

2. I don't pay much attention to consistent spelling.

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