Rick Steves' Rough Guide Helps Americans Wrap Their Heads Around The Metric System

Many Americans struggle with the metric system as the United States is one of only three countries that use the imperial system. If you're an American traveling internationally, getting used to how numbers are presented abroad can be tricky. Thankfully, seasoned travel expert Rick Steves has a rough guide to help Americans remember the metric system.

While we typically use inches, yards, and miles in the States, you're going to encounter centimeters, meters, and kilometers abroad. Rick Steves writes on his website that you can approximate a centimeter by thinking of a penny; a penny is just under two centimeters long, so a centimeter is about half the length of the coin.
For other units, rounding is your friend. "Since a meter is 39 inches, just consider a meter roughly equivalent to a yard [36 inches]," writes Steves. "A kilometer is a bit more than a half-mile (1 kilometer = 0.62 mile)."

Buying food is where weight will come into play. Whether you're in a grocery store or a traditional market, it's probably a good idea to have a sense of how much of a product you're purchasing. Rick Steves generally advises that travelers know at a minimum that an ounce is equal to 28 grams and 2.2 pounds is a kilogram. These tips no doubt were useful at one of Rick Steves' favorite markets in Europe, a tasty and historic destination in Portugal.

If you've never traveled abroad before, it may be a shock just how much of the world uses what Americans refer to as military time. In Europe, military time is just the time after noon, so expect to see reservations, museum and cafe hours, and train times displayed that way. While it can seem daunting at first, it really is a simple system and easy to remember. Morning hours are the same; things deviate after noon. Instead of starting back at one, military time keeps counting. Instead of 1 p.m., it becomes 13 p,m., and so on. "For any time after noon, subtract 12 and add p.m. (18:00 is 6 p.m.)," advises Steves if you need to convert times. Knowing the proper bus times will help you get around like a local, according to Rick Steves. 

Handwritten numbers, Steves notes, also may appear different from what Americans are used to. He says, "The number 1 has an upswing, and the number 4 often looks like a short lightning bolt. If you don't cross your 7, it may be mistaken as a sloppy 1, and you could miss your train." It's also not common for Europeans to use a hashtag to indicate a number. House and floor numbers are also different. In a hotel or apartment building, the first floor is often called the ground floor. If you're told to go to the second floor, they mean the second floor up, sometimes, what Americans would consider the third floor. Also, temperatures will be in Celsius; this goes for air conditioning and heating as well as outdoor temperatures, which nowadays can just be read in Fahrenheit on your weather app. To convert to Celsius, subtract 30 and divide by two. Check out Rick Steves' not-perfectly-accurate but simple little trick to help American tourists think in Celsius.