How can I convert Coulombs to Newtons, Newton to Kilograms and kilograms to meters/second?

Question

For example how can I find the acceleration that can be caused by the pressure of say, one ton?

Answer 1

That wouldn't be converting, but I can show you what you want. For pressure, you want to first find the force. This will be the pressure times the area. ((force/area)*area=force). Now, you take that force in newtons, and divide it by the mass, and that will give you the acceleration.

Answer 2

You can't just convert units into other units that have different dimensions. You can convert, say, newtons into pounds-force, because they are both units of force and therefore have dimensions of mass*length/time^2. Coulombs, newtons, kilograms, and m/s all have completely different dimensions. They may be related by a function that provides the dimensions to make them equivalent, but you can't convert, say, 2 kg into meters. That clearly makes no sense.

"A pressure of one ton" is also meaningless, because a ton is a measure of mass or force, and pressure is force per area. We don't describe pressures as causing acceleration; rather, forces cause acceleration. To determine the acceleration caused by a force, divide the force by the mass it acts on.

Answer 3

Units are critical to correctly solving many practical problems. Imagine if a NASA program used kilometers as a distance measurement in one calculation and miles in another....very bad things would happen. Rock solid understanding of correct units, and their conversions are essential to building/design.

If you were to remember one physics formula, F = m *a would be the one i'd recommend. Force = mass * acceleration.

Force is really the sum of all forces, meaning if two people were to push on a car, one from the front, one from the back the sum of the forces (remember force is directional) would be zero and the car would not move. Pushing from the back only would produce an imbalanced force and would cause the car to move (accelerate) forward.

Free fall is another excellent, intuitive example of this equation. Free fall is when the only force acting on a body is gravity. If you drop a weight, it will accelerate continuously due to the imbalanced, unopposed force of gravity. Wind resistance will become a significant force opposing gravity if the object is dropped from high enough reaching whats called terminal velocity...cant go any faster because the wind resistance force equals the gravitational force (weight).

If you are the least bit serious about studying physics, engineering you must get very comfortable with units. Force is not the same as mass, velocity is not the same as acceleration, etc.

Answer 4

Liters is volume kilograms is mass.Both can not be converted unless there is common specific gravity for both. You may say one liter water at normal temperature is one kg but not for other materials.

Answer 5

DavidK93 is correct.
You can't just "convert" these units into one another. They're not measuring the same thing. In a problem, though, you can perhaps cancel units you don't want in the answer and have the one you want show up by mathematically doing it. The method, though, will vary problem-by-problem.

Answer 6

The same as you'd convert feet to gallons, pounds to seconds, or kilograms to days.

Doug