Seven tools for Europeans visiting the US
After moving to San Francisco I found myself constantly converting basic units and figures. After a while I got tired of using a different formula or service every time – so I built my own forms. Here you can quickly convert lengths, times, temperatures or fuel economy. The exchange-rate tool covers the euro–dollar pair; for British pounds or Swiss francs the same approach applies – see the source link.
A few notes upfront: differences in date, address and phone formats
The United States and most European countries use different conventions for writing dates, postal addresses and phone numbers. A few examples:
Date format
In the US the date is written month/day/year; most of Europe uses day.month.year (or day/month/year in the UK). This can lead to confusion when both day and month are below 13.
- USA
- MM/DD/YYYY – e.g. 06/25/2023
- Continental Europe
- DD.MM.YYYY – e.g. 25.06.2023
- UK
- DD/MM/YYYY – e.g. 25/06/2023
Postal address
Order differs. In the US the state is given as a two-letter abbreviation; the ZIP code follows directly after the city.
- USA
-
John Smith
123 Main Street, Apt 4B
New York, NY 10001 - Germany
-
Max Mustermann
Musterstraße 123
12345 Musterstadt - UK
-
Jane Smith
123 High Street
London SW1A 1AA
Phone numbers
For international exchanges, the country code (+1 for the US, +49 for Germany, +44 for the UK) is given; the leading zero of the local prefix then drops away.
- USA
- (###) ###-#### – e.g. (123) 456-7890
- Germany
- +49 (0) ####-#### – e.g. +49 1234 567890
- UK
- +44 (0) #### ###### – e.g. +44 20 7946 0000
Exchange rate: EUR to USD – 12 months
The euro–dollar exchange rate moves around a lot. The chart shows the path of the past twelve months, based on the official ECB reference rates (data source: frankfurter.app). For the exact daily rate, see the European Central Bank's form.
Convert euros to US dollars
Convert single values directly. By default the form uses today's date; historical rates are also available.
Length conversion
Inches, yards and miles to centimetres, metres and kilometres – or back.
| Imperial | Factor | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| 1 inch = 2.54 cm | ||
| 1 yard = 0.9144 m | ||
| 1 mile = 1.60934 km |
Area conversion
From square inches to square miles in their metric equivalents.
| Imperial | Factor | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| 1 sq in = 6.4516 cm² | ||
| 1 sq ft = 0.092903 m² | ||
| 1 sq yd = 0.836127 m² | ||
| 1 acre = 0.404686 ha | ||
| 1 sq mi = 2.58999 km² |
Temperature conversion
Fahrenheit to Celsius: subtract 32, then multiply by 5/9. Celsius to Fahrenheit: multiply by 9/5, then add 32. Or just use this:
| Fahrenheit | Celsius |
|---|---|
Time: US West Coast ↔ Central Europe
Converts between US West Coast time (PST) and Central European Time (CET). Note: daylight-saving switches don't happen on the same day in the US and Europe. For roughly two weeks in March and one week in October/November the time difference is only eight rather than nine hours. UK time (GMT/BST) is one hour earlier than CET.
| US West Coast (PST) | Central Europe (CET) |
|---|---|
Fuel economy: MPG ↔ l/100km
In the US, fuel economy is measured in miles per US gallon (MPG) – higher number = more efficient. Most of Europe uses litres per 100 km – lower number = more efficient. The conversion: 235.215 divided by one value gives the other. Note: the UK still uses miles per Imperial gallon for older formats, which is a slightly different unit.
| Miles per US gallon | Litres per 100 km |
|---|---|