Converting Units in the Metric System Lesson 8-6:

Making Conversions You can convert from one metric unit to another by multiplying or dividing by a power of 10 (10, 100, 1,000, etc). Large units to small units, you multiply. Move decimal to the right. Small units to large units, you divide. Move the decimal to the left.

Use the ladder method Open and do activites pdfhttp:// pdf

Example 4.2 m = _______ cm Meters are larger than centimeters LS Converting from large units to smaller units requires multiplication. Multiply 4.2 by 100, since we are going 2 steps on the ladder or that there are 100 centimeters in a meter. To multiply by 100, move the decimal point two spaces to the right. 420

Example 2 36 g = ______kg We are going from a smaller unit to a larger unit, so we divide. Divide by 1,000 since we are moving 3 steps up the ladder. Also, there are 1,000 grams in a kilogram. To divide by 1,000, move the decimal point three spaces to the left

Practice Time P 447 # 1-7