Section 1 of 21
Units and Conversion Factors
Conversions, constants, and the pound-force problem
- p1-3page range
- 3pages long
- 4subsections
- 13drill items
What the section holds
The opening pages of the handbook, and the ones most people forget are there. This is where the conversion tables live, along with the metric prefixes, the fundamental physical constants, and the gas constant in several different unit systems. It also carries the handbook's treatment of significant figures and the distinction between pound-force and pound-mass, which is the single most common unit trap in a USCS exam question.
Why it matters for your exam
Every discipline uses this section, and almost nobody practices finding it. When a question mixes SI and USCS you will need a conversion factor under time pressure, and hunting for it in the middle of a calculation is how a solvable problem becomes a lost one.
How to navigate it
Learn the physical location rather than the contents. It is the very front of the book, so the fastest route is to jump to the start rather than to search. Practice going from any page in the book back to the conversion tables in one move.
Search terms that land here
conversion | metric prefixes | gas constant | pound-force | significant figures
Subsections, in handbook order
These are the headings the handbook itself uses. The page number beside each is where it begins.
- Distinguishing Pound-Force from Pound-Massp1
- Fundamental Constantsp2
- Ideal Gas Constantsp2
- Significant Figuresp2
Disciplines that use this section
Page numbers here are read from handbook version 10.5 (seventh printing, April 2025), which runs to 502 pages. NCEES revises the handbook and page numbers move with it, which is why the drill asks which section a topic lives in rather than which page. Check the version of your own copy, downloaded free from NCEES.