Natural gas is a major industrial and domestic fuel and, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 108 trillion cubic feet of it were consumed in 2007. Although the basic unit for measuring gas is the cubic foot, larger units are also used. These include the BCF, or billion cubic feet, and the MCF, or thousand cubic feet. Converting billions of cubic feet to thousands of cubic feet involves a straightforward multiplication by one million.
Make large numbers easier to write and understand by converting them to scientific notation. For example 1,000,000,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 look very similar, but are clearly different when expressed as 1 x 10^15 and 1 x10^18.
Enter the value in BCF into a calculator. For example, if the value is 12.56 billion cubic feet, enter 12.56.
Multiply the value from Step 1 by one million. The result is the value expressed in thousands of cubic feet, or MCF. For example, 12.56 BCF x 1,000,000 = 12,560,000 MCF.
Check your result by reversing the calculation. Divide by 1,000,000. If the result is not the original value in BCF, repeat the calculations because there was an error in your math.
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About the Author
David Robinson has written professionally since 2000. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Meteorological Society. He has written for the "Telegraph" and "Guardian" newspapers in the U.K., government publications, websites, magazines and school textbooks. He holds an honors Bachelor of Arts in geography and education and a teaching certificate from Durham University, England.
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