Metric System

Introduction In science class, we will be using the metric system to make measurements. It is a system used by scientists all over the world. Most of the people in other countries use it every day. In the U.S., we use the English System for measurement.

English System Units Length – inches, feet, yards, miles Volume – cups, quarts, gallons Weight – ounces, pounds, tons Temperature – degrees Fahrenheit Time – seconds, hours, days

Metric System Units Length – meters Volume – liters Mass (Weight) – grams Temperature – degrees Celsius Time – seconds

Prefixes Kilo – 1,000 1 kilometer = 1,000 meters 1 kilogram = 1,000 grams

Prefixes Centi – 1/100th 1 meter = 100 centimeters Milli – 1/1000th 1 meter = 1000 millimeters 1 liter = 1000 milliliters

Converting To go from a smaller unit to a larger unit of measurement, move the decimal to the left. 2345 mm = 234.5 cm = 2.345 m 789 mm = 78.9 cm = .789 m

Converting To go from a larger unit to a smaller unit of measurement, move the decimal to the right. 2.345 m = 234.5 cm = 2345 mm .789 m = 78.9 cm = 789 mm

Distance The distance across the tip of your pinky is approximately 1 centimeter (cm). A baseball bat is approximately 1 meter (m) long. You would measure the distance from BMS to the Mall of Georgia in kilometers (km).

Volume Volume is the amount of space something occupies. A can of soda is 355 milliliters (ml). A big bottle of soda is 2 liters (l).

Mass Mass is the amount of matter in an object. It’s the same thing as weight on Earth. One kilogram (kg) is just over 2 pounds. A penny has a mass of about 2 grams (g).

Temperature The temperature in this room is about 20 degrees C, or about 68 degrees F. Water freezes at 0 degrees C and boils at 100 degrees C.

Time Time is measured in the metric system the same way we measure time normally.

One More Thing We don’t normally use fractions when measuring in metric units. We use decimals. We would write 1 ½ m as 1.5 m.