1. Metric System Review
For Biology Classes

2. SI - International System of Units is accepted as the standard for measurement. This system is based on 10.

3. Base Units used in SI are the meter, liter, gram and second.

5. Prefixes are attached to base units to form larger or smaller units of measurement.

6. Kilo- one thousand
hecto- one hundred
deka- ten
base unit meter, liter, gram
deci- one-tenth 1/10
centi- one-hundreth 1/100
milli- one-thousandth 1/1000

7. Mnemonic for remembering the order:
King Henry Died By Drinking Chocolate Milk

8. Or… make up your own silly saying! 

9. A symbol is used to represent each prefix & base unit.
Kilo- k
hecto- h
deka- da or D
gram (g) meter (m) liter (l)

10. Deci- d
centi- c
milli- m

11. Larger & smaller units of measurement in SI are obtained by multiplying and dividing the base unit by some multiple of ten.

12. Multiply to change from larger to smaller units & divide to change from smaller to larger units.
NOTE: the base unit must always be the same (can’t convert meter to kilograms!

13. A short cut to do this is sometimes called the stair step method
A short cut to do this is sometimes called the stair step method. See the board & copy all examples.

14. Convert the following:
10 m into cm
5 g into mg
200 m into km
500 L into mL
2.5 mL to L
35.5 cm to m
.5 L to mL