from Industry Week, 1981 November 30
The Metric System
No Cussing!
The following 4-Letter
words are forbidden here:
Inch
Foot
Yard
Mile
Pint
Acre
And we never swear the BIG F (useoC)
Please keep it clean and
Metric
SI System
•
•
•
•
The International System of Units
Derived Units Commonly Used in Chemistry
Area and Volume: Derived Units
Prefixes in the SI System
Map of the world where red represents countries which do not use the metric system
A Common System for Trade
English system of measurement originated in 1215
with the signing of the Magna Carta. It attempted to
bring uniform measurements to world trade.
In 1790, the French government appointed a committee
of scientists to develop a universal measuring system.
It took ~10 years, and they unveiled the Metric system.
length
mass
volume
time
meter
gram
liter
second
m
g
L
s
The International System of Units
Quantity
Name
Length
Mass
Time
Amount of substance
Thermodynamic temperature
Electric current
Luminous intensity
meter
kilogram
second
mole
Kelvin
amperes
candela
Dorin, Demmin, Gabel, Chemistry The Study of Matter , 3rd Edition, 1990, page 16
Symbol
m
kg
s
mol
K
amps
cd
The Original Metric Reference
H2O
1 kg
= 1 liter
1/10,000,000 Earth
Volume
= 1 meter
Length
1/10 m
H2O
1/10 m
1/10 m
Mass
= 1 kilogram
The Official Standard Meter
The Official Standard Kilogram
Derived Units Commonly
Used in Chemistry
Quantity
Area
Volume
Force
Pressure
Energy
Power
Voltage
Frequency
Electric charge
Name
square meter
cubic meter
newton
pascal
joule
watt
volt
hertz
coulomb
Symbol
m2
m3
N
Pa
J
W
V
Hz
C
Area and Volume: Derived Units
Area = length x width
= 5.0 m x 3.0 m
= 15 ( m x m)
= 15 m2
Volume = length x width x height
= 5.0 m x 3.0 m x 4.0 m
= 60 ( m x m x m)
= 60 m3
Prefixes in the SI System
The Commonly Used Prefixes in the SI System
Prefix
Symbol
Meaning
Power of 10 for
Scientific Notation
_______________________________________________________________________
1,000,000
106
1,000
103
mega-
M
kilo-
k
deci-
d
0.1
10-1
centi-
c
0.01
10-2
milli-
m
0.001
10-3
micro-
m
0.000001
10-6
nano-
n
0.000000001
10-9
Zumdahl, Zumdahl, DeCoste, World of Chemistry 2002, page 118