o o o o
Linear
Capacity
English: inches, feet, yards, miles,
Metric: millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers
English: cups, liquid pints and quarts, gallons,
Metric: milliliters, liters
Weight/Mass English: ounces, pounds, tons,
Metric: grams, kilograms
Temperature degrees on the Fahrenheit or Celsius scale o Time seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years

Wow, I just flew in from planet Micron. It was a long flight, but well worth it to get to spend time with you!
My name is Maggie in your language (but you couldn't pronounce my real name!)
When I first arrived I couldn't understand how you measure things, but my friend Tom taught me all about measurement, and I am going to share with you everything he taught me.
The first thing Tom told me was that you can measure things using two different systems: US
Standard Units and Metric .
Today is my day to learn US Standard Units !
Since it was such a long flight, the first thing I could use is something cold to drink.
But I want to be sure how much to ask for! So I can get a drink that is not too big or too small.
The first thing I need to know when asking for a drink is the types of units used to measure liquids, which are:



Fluid Ounces


Cups
 Pints
Quarts
Gallons
Fluid Ounces (oz) are small .
About how much would fit into a small medicine cup ... but that wouldn't be enough for someone who is thirsty!
Then Tom showed me a small carton, and told me it held 8 ounces, which is also called 1 cup . But I wanted more!
So Tom showed me a pint , which is equal to 2 cups.
That seemed about right for someone who was very thirsty!
(Tom also told me that I can measure things using measuring cups )
If you were measuring many cups of liquid all put together, you might have to use quarts.
A quart (qt) is the same thing as 4 cups or 2 pints.
If you still need more liquid you may want to switch to using gallons.
A gallon (gal) is the same as 16 cups or 8 pints or 4 quarts. It is the largest liquid measurement.
So now I know that 1 ounce is too small for me, but 1 gallon would be too much. I think I will ask for a pint of juice!

Final thoughts about measuring liquids:
1 Gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups= 128 fluid ounces
Next I wanted to eat some chocolate ... so I should learn about mass. You often call it "weight", but it is only because of the gravity on your planet that items have weight!
Tom says I need to know:


Ounces
 Pounds
Tons
One thing that really confused me is that when I asked for a drink I could use ounces, but ounces are also used for mass ...
... the same word can be used in two different measuring systems! How amazing is that? But they are really different.
Tom says:
If you mean an ounce of fluid say "fluid ounce" ("fl oz")
Otherwise ounce usually means mass.
So we are not talking about fluids! I have already had something to drink. I need to know about mass.
The smallest unit of mass is ounces (oz). A slice of bread is about one ounce. It is very light.
However, when you add up the ounces you get a new label for mass:
If you have 16 ounces, it can also be called a pound (lb). Typically, this is the unit that you use to measure your own weight.
1 pound = 16 ounces

Pounds are used to measure lots of things from people to food to animals.
Tom says he weighs 90 pounds.
However, if something weighs many pounds we use yet another label
2,000 pounds is also one ton .
1 ton = 2,000 pounds
That is really heavy! Trucks, ships and heavy equipment are measured using tons instead of pounds.
An elephant has a mass of about 8 tons !
So now I know that 1 ounce of chocolate is too small for me, but 1 ton would be too much. I think I will ask for a pound of chocolate!
Final thoughts about mass:
1 pound = 16 ounces
1 Ton = 2,000 pounds = 32,000 ounces
The last kind of measurement we are going to explore is length. This is important for lots of different reasons. Measurement of length helps you to know how far you have traveled, how far you have left to travel, how tall you are and many other things.
I need to know about:
 Inches
 Feet
 Yards
 Miles

Small units of length are called inches .
The last joint of your finger or thumb is about 1 inch (depending on how big your fingers are!).
Lots of things are measured in inches from rainfall to paper length.
Measuring in inches provide us with a way for everyone to understand the size of something.
When you have 12 inches together, it is known as a foot .
1 foot = 12 inches
A long time ago, people had to use their own feet to measure things.
However, since everyone has different sized feet, it did not let everyone understand the size or distance in the same way.
Using 12 inches put together to make feet allows for everyone to have a more accurate picture of what exactly a "foot" of length is.
When 3 feet are together, this is called a yard. (This isn’t the same thing as a lawn, though they are both referred to as a "yard"!)
1 yard = 3 feet
The length of this guitar is about 1 yard.
When you put together 1,760 yards, you have a mile .
1 mile = 1,760 yards = 5,280 feet
Miles are long distances and are mostly used to measure the distance between places which are far away from each other. Most people refer to miles when they are driving, biking or jogging.
Final thoughts about measuring length:
1 foot = 12 inches
1 yard = 3 feet = 36 inches
1 mile = 1,760 yards = 5,280 feet = 63,360 inches

I was feeling a bit hot, so I asked Tom how to measure temperature .
So he showed me a thermometer . But I saw 2 sets of numbers !
Tom explained that a thermometer measures in degrees (°) of either Celsius or
Fahrenheit .
"Why two scales?", I asked.
Tom said that some people like one scale and some like the other, and that I should learn both!
He than gave me an example: when water freezes the thermometer shows:
 0 degrees Celsius on the left side,
 but on the right side it shows 32 degrees Fahrenheit .
Two numbers for the same thing!
He gave me more examples.



A hot sunny day might have a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius but would be 86 degrees in Fahrenheit .
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius or 212 degrees Fahrenheit .
And you can bake cookies in your oven at a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius , but that would be 356 degrees Fahrenheit .

Wow, I just flew in from planet Micron. It was a long flight, but well worth it to get to spend time with you!
My name is Maggie in your language (but you couldn't pronounce my real name!)
When I first arrived I couldn't understand how you measure things, but my friend Tom taught me all about measurement, and I am going to share with you everything he taught me.
The first thing Tom told me was that you can measure things using two different systems:
Metric and US Standard .
Today is my day to learn Metric !
Tom says that if I understand 10, 100, and 1000 then I will have a very easy time learning the metric system. I wish I had ten fingers!
Since it was such a long flight, the first thing I could use is something cold to drink.
But I want to know how much to ask for! So I can get a drink that is not too big or too small.
Tom says I only need to know about:


Milliliters
Liters
A milliliter (that is "milli" and "liter" put together) is a very small amount of liquid.
Here is a milliliter of milk in a teaspoon.
It doesn't even fill the teaspoon!
Tom says if you collect about 20 drops of water, you will have 1 milliliter:

20 drops of water make about 1 milliliter
And that a teaspoon can hold about five milliliters:
1 full teaspoon of liquid is about 5 milliliters
Milliliters are often written as ml (for short), so "100 ml" means "100 milliliters".
But a milliliter is definitely not enough for someone who is thirsty! So Tom told me about liters.
A liter is just a bunch of milliliters put all together. In fact, 1000 milliliters makes up 1 liter.
1 liter = 1,000 milliliters
This jug has exactly 1 liter of water in it.
Liters are often written as L (for short), so "3 L" means "3 Liters".
Milk, soda and other drinks are often sold in liters.
Tom says to look on the labels, so the next time you are at the store take a minute and check out how many liters (or milliliters) are in each container!
Now I know that a milliliter is very small, and a liter is like a jug in size, I think I will ask for half a liter of juice!
So this is all you need to know:
1 Liter = 1,000 Milliliters

Next I wanted to eat some chocolate ... so I should learn about mass. You often call it "weight", but it is only because of the gravity on your planet that items have weight!
Tom tells me that to understand mass, I should know these three terms:
 Grams
 Kilograms
 Tonnes
Grams are the smallest, Tonnes are the biggest.
Let’s take a few minutes and explore how heavy each of these are.
A paperclip weighs about 1 gram.
Hold one small paperclip in your hand. Does that weigh a lot? No! A gram is very light. That is why you often see things measured in hundreds of grams.
Grams are often written as g (for short), so "300 g" means "300 grams".
Tom tells me a loaf of bread weighs about 700 g
Once you have 1,000 grams, you have 1 kilogram .
1 kilogram = 1,000 grams
A dictionary has a mass of about one kilogram.
Kilograms are great for measuring things that can be lifted by people (sometimes very strong people are needed of course!).

Kilograms are often written as kg (that is a "k" for "kilo" and a "g" for "gram), so "10 kg" means "10 kilograms".
When you weigh yourself on a scale, you would use kilograms. Tom weighs about 40 kg. How much do you weigh?
But when it comes to things that are very heavy, we need to use the tonne.
Once you have 1000 kilograms, you will have 1 tonne.
1 tonne = 1,000 kilograms
Tonnes (also called Metric Tons) are used to measure things that are very heavy.
Things like cars, trucks and large cargo boxes are weighed using the tonne.
This car has a mass of about 2 tonnes.
Tonnes are often written as t (for short), so "5 t" means "5 tonnes".
Final thoughts about mass:
1 kilogram = 1,000 grams
1 tonne = 1,000 kilograms
Measuring how long things are, how tall they are, or how far apart they might be are all examples of length measurements.
Tom says I should know about:
 Millimeters
 Centimeters
 Meters

 Kilometers
Small units of length are called millimeters .
A millimeter is about the thickness of a plastic id card (or credit card).
Or about the thickness of 10 sheets of paper on top of each other.
This is a very small measurement!
When you have something that is 10 millimeters, it can be said that it is 1 centimeter.
1 centimeter = 10 millimeters
A fingernail is about one centimeter wide .
You might use centimeters to measure how tall you are, or how wide a table is, but you would not use it to measure the length of football field. In order to do that, you would switch to meters.
A meter is equal to 100 centimeters.
1 meter = 100 centimeters
The length of this guitar is about 1 meter
Meters might be used to measure the length of a house, or the size of a playground.

When you need to get from one place to another, you will need to measure that distance using kilometers. A kilometer is equal to 1,000 meters.
The distance from one city to another or how far a plane travels would be measured using kilometers.
Final thoughts about measuring length:
1 centimeter = 10 millimeters
1 meter = 100 centimeters
1 kilometer = 1000 meters
I was feeling a bit hot, so I asked Tom how to measure temperature .
So he showed me a thermometer . But I saw 2 sets of numbers !
Tom explained that a thermometer measures in degrees (°) of either
Celsius or
Fahrenheit .
"Why two scales?", I asked.
Tom said that some people like one scale and some like the other, and that I should learn both!
He then gave me an example: when water freezes the thermometer shows:
 0 degrees Celsius on the left side,
 but on the right side it shows 32 degrees Fahrenheit .
So there can be two numbers for the same thing!
He gave me more examples.



A hot sunny day might have a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius but would be 86 degrees in Fahrenheit .
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius or 212 degrees Fahrenheit .
And you can bake cookies in your oven at a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius , but that would be 356 degrees Fahrenheit .
I decided to get my own thermometer, so I would learn about all this.

I hope you enjoyed learning all about metric measurement.
Now I must return home. Keep measuring until I see you again!!!!!!!!!
(Correctly called " SI ")
The metric system is a system of measuring . It has three basic units: m kg the meter for length the kilogram for mass s the second for time
With those three simple measurements we can measure nearly everything in the world!
Examples:
The length of this guitar is about 1 meter :
When unfolded this ruler measures 2 meters :

This gold bar has a mass of 1 kilogram .
A dictionary has a mass of about 1 kilogram .
1 second is about
444553540000" as long as it takes to codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#ve rsion=7,0,0,0" width="228" height="224" id="images/clock-analog-seconds.swf" align="middle"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param say name="movie" value="images/clock-analog-seconds.swf" /> <param name="quality"
"one value="high" /> </object> thousan d and one"
But what if we want to talk about really big or really small things?
Answer: we can use Metric Number Prefixes

 like "kilo" (a thousand)
 and "milli" (one thousandth) and so on
Example: something that is 1,000 meters is a " kilo meter"
Something that is one thousandth of a second is a " milli second"
In fact the kilogram already uses this method, because it is a thousand grams , a kilo gram.
So one thousandth (1/1000) of a kilogram is simply a "gram"
Here is a quick summary of the special prefixes:

Name deca hecto kilo mega giga tera peta exa zetta yotta
Symbol da h k M G T P E Z Y
Factor 10
1
10
2
10
3
10
6
10
9
10
12
10
15
10
18
10
21
10
24
Example A million liters would be called a megaliter and abbreviated ML
Name deci centi milli micro nano pico femto atto zepto yocto
Symbol d c m
µ n p f a z y
Factor 10 -1 10 -2 10 -3 10 -6 10 -9 10 -12 10 -15 10 -18 10 -21 10 -24
Example A thousandth of a second would be called a millisecond and abbreviated ms
You can also combine the meter, kilogram and second to make new Units of Measurement !
Speed is how far something moves over a period of time
So it can be measured in meters per second
It means: How many meters does something travel in one second
You could write it as meters/second, or simply m/s
Here are a few common units that are based on the meter , kilogram and second :
Area is length by length, so the basic unit of area is a square that is 1 meter on each side.
The Unit is meters × meters, which is written m 2 (square meters).

Volume is length by length by length, so the basic unit of volume is a cube that is 1 meter on each side .
The Unit is meters × meters × meters, which is written m
3
(cubic meters).
So, a cube that is 1 meter on each side is a cubic meter (m
3
) ...
... and that is also equal to 1,000 liters .
1 m
3
= 1,000 Liters
Liter is abbreviated L (some people use lowercase l , but that looks too much like 1 ).
So a liter is actually one-thousandth of a cubic meter.
1 Liter =
1
/
1000
m
3
Another way of thinking about a liter is:


A box that is 0.1 meters (10 cm) on each side,
One square meter that is millimeter thick.
An hour is 60 minutes, and a minute is 60 seconds, so an hour is:
 60 × 60 = 3,600 seconds
A day is 24 hours so:
 1 day = 24 × 60 × 60 = 86,400 second

This is a combination of two units (meters and seconds) to make a new one (m/s).
If something is traveling at 1 m/s it moves 1 meter every second .
A bit more complicated, but a kilometer has 1,000 meters, and an hour has 3,600 seconds, so a kilometer per hour is:
 1000 / 3600 = 1/3.6 = 0.277... m/s
How did I know to make it 1000/3600 , and not 3600/1000 (the other way around)? Read how to
Safely Convert From One Unit to Another .
Acceleration is how fast Speed changes.
If something accelerated from a Speed of 5 m/s (5 meter per second) to 6 m/s (6 meters per second) in just one second , it has accelerated by 1 meter per second per second !
That is two lots of "per second" and is written m/s 2 :
Force is usually measured in the Unit of Newtons, an important measurement in Physics and
Engineering.
But a Newton is actually
1 kg · m / s 2 (one kilogram-meter per second-squared).
So force is actually based on the meter , kilogram and second .
One way of looking at this is how much force it takes to make 1 kg accelerate at 1 m/s 2 .
But even if you don't fully understand this, it shows you that force is a combination of the three basic units .

The original Metric System was first developed in France back in 1670.
The modern version, (since 1960) is correctly called "International System of Units" or "SI"
(from the French " Système International ").
So you should really call it " SI ", but mostly people just call it "Metric".
A few special units are also needed to complete the SI System:

 ampere for electric current,
 kelvin for temperature, mole for the amount of substance, and
 candela for luminous intensity
So the complete list is:
Quantity
Length
Mass
Time
Electrical Current
Temperature
Amount of substance
Luminous intensity
Name metre kilogram second ampere kelvin mole candela
Symbol m kg s
A
K mol cd