Mr. Hatterly would be proud. More than a decade ago my high school chemistry teacher dutifully attempted to teach me how to convert grams per liter to… I don’t know, feet per second. I don’t remember any of it except that switching a combination of units of stuff, to another combination of units of stuff ain’t easy for me. Yet, somehow (crash the big gong in your brain), I think I may have just successfully transmuted km/l to mpg with a pen and paper.

Yes, there is an actual motorcycle-ish point to this. I just finished writing the first look article on the Piaggio USB, a weird-looking scooter concept unveiled at the 2009 Milan Bike Show. It claims a fuel efficiency of “around 1.5 L every 100 Km.” True, I’m an American, so my mind doesn’t work right in metric. But even still, this syntax was giving me a total mental spasm. Isn't that bass ackwards? Like saying, it takes me 4 gallons to go 100 miles in my car, instead of 25 mpg.

Before I could think of what was going on, I had a Chemistry 101 flashback. Back then my pure C-minus chem brain couldn’t hack it. Joules per liter, lbs per calorie… Ahhh!!!!

When I later awoke in a cold sweat on the floor of my office, I settled back into my chair to discover 15 minute gone and the formula you see to your right sitting on my desk.

I did it! I think… 1.5 liters every 100km equals around 155 mpg, give or take.

For those who can’t go into an involuntary fugue state for mathematic emergencies, I have since discovered there’s this website called Wikipedia. Ever heard of it? On top of being an unassailable bastion of pure knowledge, it has a handy km/l to MPG conversion table which, more or less, confirmed our scribbles.

Much easier…