A Beginners Guide to Water Management—Symbols, Abbreviations, and Conversion Factors

Florida LAKEWATCH


This 44-page booklet provides the tools for reading, converting, interpreting and/or translating units of measure commonly used by people involved in water management in the U.S. and internationally. Much of this information is typically only available by searching numerous publications, but we have assembled it here under one cover for quick reference. Included in this circular:

  • Common SI (International System) Prefixes
  • Commonly Used Abbreviations and Symbols
  • Commonly Used Metric and English Conversion Factors
  • A Glossary of Commonly Used Metric and English Conversion Factors
  • Elements and Atomic Weights
  • Interpreting Water Chemistry Formulas and Calculating Molecular Weights
  • Different Ways of Expressing a Chemical Compound
  • Using Atomic Weights to Compare Different Measures of Concentration

Keywords: abbreviation, acre, area, atomic weights, calories, carbon-12, Celcius, centimeter, common prefixes, communication, concentration, conversion factor, conversions, cubic, element, ergs, exponent, Fahrenheit, fathom, feet, gallon, grains, gram, hectare, inches, International System (SI), kilo, length, liter, lumen, mass, meter, metric, metric system, micro, mille, mole, molecular weight, molecule, multiplying factor, nutrients, ounces, prefix, pressure, quart, relative, atomic, weight, scientific, language, scientific, notation, square, standardize, symbols, temperature, thousand, ton, translators, unit of measure, volume, watt, weight, yard.

Note: Circular 105 is available in Portable Document Format (pdf) only. It can be obtained as a single PDF file by clicking on the "Printer Friendly Version" link above (file size = 1 MB).

Photos used with permission as credited.