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<strong>Metric</strong> <strong>System</strong> <strong>Notes</strong><br />
Brief History:<br />
Too many ways to measure things, needed<br />
a common way<br />
French came up with a new system called the metric system<br />
based on 10's<br />
Used in science and in every country<br />
except ours :(<br />
Why People use the <strong>Metric</strong> <strong>System</strong><br />
Only 1 base unit for every type of measurement<br />
Measure: Base Unit:<br />
Length<br />
Meter<br />
Mass Gram<br />
Volume Liter<br />
Equals about:<br />
3.28 ft<br />
the mass of<br />
a paper clip<br />
just less than<br />
3 cans of soda<br />
better than foot and inch both being base units for length<br />
prefixes (before the base unit) tell us about the size of the<br />
thing being measured<br />
prefixes are in multiples of 10 (kilo= 1000 times bigger than<br />
the base unit)<br />
Nile river example:<br />
6, 650,000 m = 6, 500 km<br />
Means both of these numbers are equal<br />
<strong>Metric</strong> Prefix Abbreviation Unit Multiples<br />
kilo<br />
hecto<br />
deca<br />
Base unit<br />
deci<br />
centi<br />
mili<br />
k<br />
h<br />
da<br />
(m, g, l)<br />
d<br />
c<br />
m<br />
1,000<br />
100<br />
10<br />
<br />
0.1<br />
0.01<br />
0.001<br />
they are equal because of how<br />
these prefixes relate to the<br />
base unit<br />
1
Mnemonic Device for Remembering <strong>Metric</strong> Prefixes: (skip the base<br />
unit because that changes depending on what you are measuring, or be<br />
sure to include "base unit" in your mnemonic device)<br />
Used to measure:<br />
Very big things very small things<br />
kilo<br />
Base<br />
hecto deca deci centi milli<br />
<strong>Metric</strong> <strong>System</strong> Specifics and Converting<br />
Numbers in the <strong>Metric</strong> <strong>System</strong><br />
Prefixes based on multiples of 10<br />
Any unit (kilogram for instance) can be converted<br />
to another unit (gram)<br />
Measurements can not be converted from one base unit<br />
to another though<br />
Convert between units by moving the decimal<br />
to the left or right<br />
Conversions Shortcut:<br />
Move Decimal<br />
Converting from a smaller prefix<br />
to a larger one (cm to hm)<br />
Converting from a larger prefix<br />
to a smaller one (hm to cm)<br />
Examples:<br />
8939.0 mm = 8.939 m<br />
Move decimal<br />
to the left 3 times (L 3)<br />
My Mnemonic Device for remembering<br />
the ORDER of the Prefixes<br />
King Henry Danced Backwards Down Clown Mountain<br />
kilo hecto deca Base Unit<br />
(m, g, l)<br />
deci centi mili<br />
Unit<br />
Left<br />
Move Decimal<br />
Right<br />
to hold the place<br />
456.7 0 hm = 45,670.0 m<br />
Move decimal to<br />
the right 2 times (R 2)<br />
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