Metric Units And Conversions

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Chapter 3 Metric Units and Conversions
3.1 The Metric System and Prefixes
Metric system: a simple decimal system of measurement that uses the following basic units:
Quantity
Basic Unit
Symbol
length
meter
m
mass
gram
g
volume
liter
L
time
second
s
Metric prefixes change the size of the basic unit to larger or smaller units. Each prefix
represents a power of 10.
Know the following metric prefixes!
Prefix
Symbol
Multiplier
kilo
k
1000 times larger
deci
d
10 times smaller
centi
c
100 times smaller
milli
m
1000 times smaller

micro
1,000,000 times smaller
3.2 Metric Conversions
In order to solve conversion problems you need to know how to set up the problem and how to
write conversion factors. When two quantities are equal, you can write them in fraction form as
a conversion factor. For example, 60 seconds equals 1 minute. Thus you can write the two
conversion factors as (
) or (
). Which one you use depends on the given.
 Fill in the blanks to make the two quantities equal. You must memorize these:
1 m = _______________ m
1 m = _________ cm
1 m = _________ dm
1 m = _______________ mm
Note – meters could be grams or liters in these
1 km = _________ m
To remember the number of centimeters or decimeters in a meter, just think of the number of
cents or dimes in a dollar! Note metric conversion factors are all exact.
Smith, Clark
GCC CHM 130
Chapter 3: Metric Units and Conversions
page 1

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