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    Metric System Basics

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    aapirzado
    The metric system uses base units of meters, liters, and grams. Prefixes are added to base units to indicate multiplication by powers of 10. Conversions within the metric system are done by moving the decimal point one place to the left or right for each "step" between prefixes, as shown in the diagram. Common prefixes are kilo, centi, and milli, with kilo meaning 1000 times the base unit and milli being one-thousandth of the base unit.

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    Metric System Basics

    Uploaded by

    aapirzado
    28 views16 pages
    The metric system uses base units of meters, liters, and grams. Prefixes are added to base units to indicate multiplication by powers of 10. Conversions within the metric system are done by moving the decimal point one place to the left or right for each "step" between prefixes, as shown in the diagram. Common prefixes are kilo, centi, and milli, with kilo meaning 1000 times the base unit and milli being one-thousandth of the base unit.

    Original Description:

    Basics of Matrics

    Original Title

    Metrics

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    The metric system uses base units of meters, liters, and grams. Prefixes are added to base units to indicate multiplication by powers of 10. Conversions within the metric system are done by moving the decimal point one place to the left or right for each "step" between prefixes, as shown in the diagram. Common prefixes are kilo, centi, and milli, with kilo meaning 1000 times the base unit and milli being one-thousandth of the base unit.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    28 views16 pages

    Metric System Basics

    Uploaded by

    aapirzado
    The metric system uses base units of meters, liters, and grams. Prefixes are added to base units to indicate multiplication by powers of 10. Conversions within the metric system are done by moving the decimal point one place to the left or right for each "step" between prefixes, as shown in the diagram. Common prefixes are kilo, centi, and milli, with kilo meaning 1000 times the base unit and milli being one-thousandth of the base unit.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 16

    Metric System Basics

    Metric System
    The metric system is based on a base unit that
    corresponds to a certain kind of measurement
    Length = meter
    Volume = liter
    Weight (Mass) = gram

    Prefixes plus base units make up the metric


    system
    Example:
    Centi + meter = Centimeter
    Kilo + liter = Kiloliter

    Metric System
    The three prefixes that we will use the most
    are:
    kilo
    centi
    milli
    Base Units

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    gram
    liter

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    So if you needed to measure length you
    would choose meter as your base unit
    Length of a tree branch
    1.5 meters

    Length of a room
    5 meters

    Length of a ball of twine stretched out


    25 meters

    Metric System
    But what if you need to measure a longer
    distance, like from your house to school?
    Lets say you live approximately 10 miles from
    school
    10 miles = 16093 meters

    16093 is a big number, but what if you could


    add a prefix onto the base unit to make it easier
    to manage:
    16093 meters = 16.093 kilometers (or 16.1 if
    rounded to 1 decimal place)

    Metric System
    These prefixes are based on powers of 10. What
    does this mean?
    From each prefix every step is either:
    10 times larger
    or

    10 times smaller

    For example
    Centimeters are 10 times larger than millimeters
    1 centimeter = 10 millimeters
    Base Units

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    gram
    liter

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    Centimeters are 10 times larger
    than millimeters so it takes more
    millimeters for the same length
    1 centimeter = 10 millimeters
    Example not to scale

    40
    1 mm

    41
    1 mm

    1 mm

    1 mm

    1 mm

    1 mm

    40

    1 mm

    1 mm

    1 mm

    1 mm

    41
    1 cm

    Metric System
    For each step to right,
    you are multiplying by 10
    For example, lets go from a base unit to centi
    1 liter = 10 deciliters = 100 centiliters
    ( 1 x 10 = 10)

    (10 x 10 = 100)

    2 grams = 20 decigrams = 200 centigrams


    (2 x 10 = 20)

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    (20 x 10 = 200)

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    An easy way to move within the metric system is by
    moving the decimal point one place for each step
    desired
    Example: change meters to centimeters
    1 meter = 10 decimeters = 100 centimeters
    or
    1.00 meter = 10.0 decimeters = 100. centimeters

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    Now lets try our previous example from meters to
    kilometers:
    16093 meters = 1609.3 decameters = 160.93
    hectometers = 16.093 kilometers
    So for every step from the base unit to kilo, we
    moved the decimal 1 place to the left
    (the same direction as in the diagram below)

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    If you move to the left in the diagram, move the
    decimal to the left
    If you move to the right in the diagram, move
    the decimal to the right

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    Now lets start from centimeters and convert to
    kilometers
    400000 centimeters = 4 kilometers

    400000 centimeters = 4.00000 kilometers

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    Now lets start from meters and convert to kilometers
    4000 meters = 4 kilometers
    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Now lets start from centimeters and convert to


    meters
    4000 centimeters = 40 meters
    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    Now lets start from meters and convert to centimeters
    5 meters = 500 centimeters
    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Now lets start from kilometers and convert to meters


    .3 kilometers = 300 meters
    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    Now lets start from kilometers and convert to
    millimeters
    4 kilometers = 4000000 millimeters
    or
    4 kilometers = 40 hectometers = 400 decameters
    = 4000 meters = 40000 decimeters
    = 400000 centimeters = 4000000 millimeters

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

    Metric System
    Summary
    Base units in the metric system are meter, liter, gram
    Metric system is based on powers of 10
    For conversions within the metric system, each step is 1
    decimal place to the right or left
    Using the diagram below, converting to the right, moves the
    decimal to the right and vice versa

    kilo

    hecto

    deca

    meter
    liter
    gram

    deci

    centi

    milli

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