Metric Measurements
Making measurements in the metric system is easy. You have only two
decisions to make and only six words (or parts of words) to remember.
The first decision is easy and up to you. What is it you want to measure
about object or substance? The choices are:
Mass – how heavy the object is. If you choose to measure mass,
the appropriate metric units are grams (or fractions of grams).
Size – how large the object is. Units will be meters. Size also
includes area and the volume or spaces, which are calculated from
measurements of length, width, height, and circumference.
Volume – how much of a liquid you have. The units are liters.
The second decision involves the scale of measurement required for
what you are measuring. Is the object tiny, average, or huge? If the
object is tiny, you will use a fraction of the base unit for measurement.
For example, a meter is the length of the long wooden rulers in the
classroom. If you wanted to measure the width of your thumbnail, you
would needs units than a whole meter (centimeters or millimeters).
Only 3 prefixes are commonly used to adjust scale. They are:
Centi – 1/100 (remember that one cent = 1/100 of a dollar).*
Milli – 1/1000 (1 millimeter = 1/1000 of a meter; very tiny!).*
Kilo – 1000 (a 10 Kilometer run is about 6 miles).
 Notice that the fraction prefixes both end in the letter “i”
Choose the unit that will allow you to report your measurement in the
most convenient number.
Example:
Distance from Mesa to Tucson = 167,00 meters but 167 km
(kilometers) is much easier to read on a road sign.
My thumbnail = 16mm = 1.6cm = - 0.016mm. 16 mm
(millimeters) seems easiest to use as it doesn’t involve decimal
fractions.
There you have it – 6 words:
Gram
Meter
Liter
millicentikilo-
To make it even more convenient, mass, size, and volume measurements
are all related in the following manner:
1 cm3 of water has a mass of 1 g and has a liquid volume of 1 ml.
(1 cm3 is the space of a square box with each side 1 cm long)
Your lab will allow you to practice using the Metrics System. The more
you measure to more practice you get.
PLEASE ASK IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS!!!!