The Metric System Page 4
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13Converting Units Up and Down the Metric Scale
Converting between metric units of measure requires knowledge of the metric prefixes
and an understanding of the decimal system—that’s about it.
For instance, you can figure out how many centigrams are in one dekagram by using the
table above. One dekagram is larger than one centigram, so you expect that one
dekagram will equal many centigrams.
In the table, each unit is 10 times larger than the one to its immediate right. This means
that 1 dekagram = 10 grams; 10 grams = 100 decigrams; and 100 decigrams = 1,000
centigrams. So, 1 dekagram = 1,000 centigrams.
Example
Problem
How many milligrams are in one decigram?
Identify locations of
kg hg dag
g dg cg mg
milligrams and decigrams.
^
^
Decigrams (dg) are larger
than milligrams (mg), so you
expect there to be many mg
in one dg.
×10 ×10
Dg is 10 times larger than a
cg, and a cg is 10 times
kg hg dag g dg cg mg
larger than a mg.
^
^
Since you are going from a
larger unit to a smaller unit,
multiply.
1 dg • 10 • 10 = 100 mg Multiply: 1 • 10 • 10, to find
the number of milligrams in
one decigram.
Answer
There are 100 milligrams (mg) in 1 decigram (dg).
Example
Convert 1 centimeter to kilometers.
Problem
km hm dam m dm cm mm
Identify locations of
kilometers and centimeters.
^
^
Kilometers (km) are larger
than centimeters (cm), so
you expect there to be less
than one km in a cm.
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