Question

How is using a conversion factor different from using proportions to convert measurement units? Explain which is easier and why.

Answer 1

A conversion factor is basically a simplified ratio. For example, we want to convert 50 cm to meters
With a ratio,
1 m: 100 cm
x m : 50 cm
1/100 = x/50
x = 50 * 1/100
x = 0.5 m
Whereas, the conversion factor says,
cm/100 = meters
50/100 = 0.5m
The conversion is easier to use since it skips many steps and produces an answer directly.

Answer 2

Answer: Please don't copy and paste my answer.  Conversion is simpler if you have the conversion factor.

Step-by-step explanation:

Conversion factor is easier because it uses a known conversion.

for example: 1 foot = 12 inches or 12 inches = 1 foot

or 1 cm= __ mm   or    1 m= ___ cm

please don't copy my work or anyone else's. Read what is here and put it in your own words.

Converting measurements using proportions is a little more difficult because you do not know the conversion factor immediately and you have to find it based on information you are given.

For example: lets say I'm playing Minecraft with my 5 friends and I want to make chests for every one in the group, but I haven't played in a long time so i forget the amount of wood needed to make a chest. It's easier for me to make the chests if i already have enough pieces of wood first rather than gathering, then making, then gathering more etc.

I do remember that i will have to go cut down trees to get logs of wood to turn into pieces to make the chest. If i collect 5 logs and go to the crafting table, I am able to turn those logs into 4 pieces per log so I have 5 logs = 20 pieces total.

Then I use all those pieces to craft chests and i discover that I am only able to make 2 chests and I have 4 pieces of wood left over. That means that it takes 8 pieces of wood to make 1 chest. To recap, I now know that 1 log= 4 pieces of wood and it takes 8 pieces of wood to make a chest, so I can say that 2 logs is what i should gather per chest i want to make.

Don't get confused here, I started  working this out as a proportion conversion, not conversion factor... I'm just saying that when using a proportion that you still have to find a conversion rate of some kind. So, I guess in a way, we have changed using proportion conversion into a conversion factor because we now know the ratio of 2 logs = 1 chest ( 2 logs of wood= 8 pieces of wood= 1 chest, so 2 logs = 1 chest).

I want to make a chest for every one so now I have to figure out how many logs I need. There area total of 6 of us ( me and 5 friends). 6 people= 6 chests.

so 2 logs= 1 chest and  ___ logs = 6 chests

you can also write this as 2/1 = x/6 where x represents the number of logs

2/1= 2 so you can simplify to 2=x/6

multiply each side by 6 to solve for x

12=x

i need to find 12 logs to make a total of 6 chests

So, now that you've read through all of this, the difference is really pretty small between using conversion factor and proportion to convert measurement. Conversion factor is where you already know the conversion and proportion means that you have to find the conversion factor to solve the equation. Don't copy and paste this. Every one is going to obviously say that conversion factor is easier. However, you have to use proportion if you do not already have a set, standard conversion.

Hope that helps!