The Metric System

~King Henry Died unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk~ Unlike our English system of measurement with its feet and inches, quarts and gallons, the metric system is very orderly All variations of the units of measure are really just the units multiplied by powers of 10. Converting to larger or smaller unit measurements is a matter of multiplying or dividing by 10, 100, 1000 and so forth. This can be simply accomplished by moving the decimal place to the left or right the appropriate number of spaces, as we will soon see.

The Basic Units of Metric Measure Distance = measured in meters, “m” Volume = measured in liters, “l” Mass = measured in grams, “g” King Henry Died Unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk…

King Henry’ Died Unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk!!!!!!!!!! To help you gain a basic understanding of their relative size, it is useful to learn to associate familiar everyday items of similar measurement with the basic units. King Henry Died Unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk A meter is approximately equal to the length of a yardstick. A liter is approximately equal to the volume of a quart. A gram is approximately equal to the weight of a paper clip. King Henry Died Unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk!!!

What does King Henry have to do with all this? Well... nothing actually, but this silly sentence IS a mnemonic device, a memory tool, to help you remember the relationships between the variations of these basic units. [K]ing [H]enry [D]ied (u)nexpectedly [d]rinking [c]hocolate [m]ilk

This chart can assist in the process of conversion of metric measurements from one sort of unit to another. Kilo [K]ing Hecto [H]enry Deca [D]ied Unit of Measure (Unexpectedly) deci [d]rinking centi [c]hocolate milli [m]ilk

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 10

1 cm = 10 mm 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 41 1 mm 40 41 1 cm

For each “step” to right, you are multiplying by 10 For example, let’s go from a base unit to centi 1 liter = 10 deciliters = 100 centiliters 2 grams = 20 decigrams = 200 centigrams Kilo Hecto Deca Unit deci centi milli

Moving along… 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 Unit deci centi milli

Slide on over Now let’s start from meters and convert to centimeters 5 meters = 500 centimeters Now let’s start from kilometers and convert to meters .3 kilometers = 300 meters Kilo Hecto Deca Unit deci centi milli Kilo Hecto Deca Unit 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 Unit deci centi milli