The Metric System Page 5
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13÷10 ÷10
÷10 ÷10 ÷10
Cm is 10 times smaller than
km hm dam m dm
cm
mm
a dm; a dm is 10 times
smaller than a m, etc.
^
^
Since you are going from a
smaller unit to a larger unit,
divide.
1 cm ÷ 10 ÷ 10 ÷ 10 ÷ 10 ÷ 10 =
Divide: 1 ÷ 10 ÷ 10 ÷ 10 ÷
0.00001 km
10 ÷ 10, to find the number
of kilometers in one
centimeter.
Answer
1 centimeter (cm) = 0.00001 kilometers (km).
Once you begin to understand the metric system, you can use a shortcut to convert
among different metric units. The size of metric units increases tenfold as you go up the
metric scale. The decimal system works the same way: a tenth is 10 times larger than a
hundredth; a hundredth is 10 times larger than a thousandth, etc. By applying what you
know about decimals to the metric system, converting among units is as simple as
moving decimal points.
Here is the first problem from above: How many milligrams are in one decigram? You
can recreate the order of the metric units as shown below:
kg
hg
dag
g
d g
c g
m g
1
2
This question asks you to start with 1 decigram and convert that to milligrams. As shown
above, milligrams is two places to the right of decigrams. You can just move the decimal
1
dg
=
100.
mg
point two places to the right to convert decigrams to milligrams:
.
1 2
The same method works when you are converting from a smaller to a larger unit, as in
the problem: Convert 1 centimeter to kilometers.
k m
h m
d am
m
d m
c m
mm
1
5
4
3
2
Note that instead of moving to the right, you are now moving to the left—so the decimal
1
cm
=
0.00001
km
point must do the same:
.
5 4 3 2
1
Self Check B
How many milliliters are in 1 liter?
Self Check C
Convert 3,085 milligrams to grams.
4.61
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