Units And Conversions Worksheets (Page 8 of 10) in pdf

Basic Arithmetic

Lesson 9 – Units & Conversions

METRIC CONVERSIONS

The metric system originated in Europe around 1800 and was quickly adopted around the

world as a standard system of measurement. In fact, the U.S. is the only industrialized

country that does not use the metric system as its official measurement system even

though there are metric units utilized in the U.S. for various things.

The strength of the metric system is that it is based on powers of ten as you can see in the

chart below. Prefixes are the same for each power of ten above or below the base unit.

Metric Chart

KILO

HECTO

DEKA

DECI

CENTI

MILLI

1000 x Base

100 x Base

10 x Base

Base Unit

.10 x Base

.01 x Base

.001 x Base

Kilometer

Hectometer

Dekameter

Meter

Decimeter

Centimeter

Millimeter

(km)

(hm)

(dam)

(m)

(dm)

(cm)

(mm)

Kiloliter

Hectoliter

Dekaliter

Liter

Deciliter

Centiliter

Milliliter

(kl)

(hl)

(dal)

(l)

(dl)

(cl)

(ml)

Kilogram

Hectogram

Dekagram

Gram

Decigram

Centigram

Milligram

(kg)

(hg)

(dag)

(g)

(dg)

(cg)

(mg)

Some Common Metric Conversions

1 centimeter (cm) = 10 millimeters (mm)

1 meter (m) = 100 centimeters (cm)

1 kilometer (km) = 1000 meters (m)

The process below works very well for making conversions between metric system units.

Recommended Process for Working Metric Conversion Problems:

1. Use the metric chart above and locate the initial unit and desired unit on the chart

(note some charts may be displayed with the smaller units on the left).

2. Count the columns between units (do not count initial unit column).

3. If the desired unit is LARGER than the initial unit, move the decimal to the LEFT

the same as the number of columns from step 2. If the desired unit is SMALLER

than the initial unit, move the decimal to the RIGHT the same as the number of

columns from step 2.

Example 14:

a. 4200 g = ________ mg

b. 45 cm = _______ m

c. 7,236,137 ml = _______ kl

Example 15: If a person’s pupillary distance (from one pupil to the other) is 61 mm and

the distance from their pupil to the middle of their upper lip is 7 cm, which distance is

longer?

144

Units And Conversions Worksheets Page 8

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