Unit 9

METRIC MEASUREMENT UNITS

METRIC UNITS OF LINEAR
MEASURE
 Based on powers of 10
 Most frequently used units of length:
 kilometer
 meter
 centimeter
 millimeter

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 METRIC LINEAR UNITS
• The following list shows several units of linear measure and their
lengths in meters:
1 kilometer (km) = 1000 meters (m)
1 hectometer (hm) = 100 meters (m)
1 dekameter (dam) = 10 meters (m)
1 meter (m) = 1 meter (m)
1 decimeter (dm) = 0.1 meter (m)
1 centimeter (cm) = 0.01 meter (m)
1 millimeter (mm) = 0.001 meter (m)
 There are a lot of these conversions on your conversion sheet
with the back covering the prefixes and some of the
conversions covered on the front. In metric, the unit is not as
important as the prefix.

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CONVERTING METRIC LENGTHS

• Express 75 decimeters as meters

75dm 1m
x  7 .5 m
1 10dm

• Express 1.95 centimeters as millimeters

1.95 cm 1m 1000mm
x x  19.5mm
1 100cm 1m
**Notice I converted to meters and back to millimeters. This is not required, you can slide the
decimals but most non-metric using people have trouble sliding the decimal. Especially when we
get to other dimensions. The conversions used above are on your conversion sheet and keep you
from sliding the wrong direction.

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METRIC AREA CONVERSIONS

• Express 84.5 square centimeters as square decimeters

2 2 2
84.5cm 1m 100dm 2
x x  0.845dm
1 2 2
10000cm 1m
• These conversions are not all on your sheet but to go from first to
second dimension you are squaring measurements from the first….so
10dm in a meter in linear (first) so 100dm2 = 1m2
• Express 5.6 square hectometers as square Dekameters
•Capital D to show Deka instead of deci
•Dam is also used for Dekameters
2 2 2
5.6hm 10000m 1Dm 2
x x  560Dm
1 2 2
1hm 100m
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METRIC VOLUME UNITS

 Express 38,500 cubic millimeters as cubic decimeters

3 3 3
38500mm 1m 1000dm 3
x x  0.0385dm
1 9 3 3
10 mm 1m
 Convert 2.5 km3 as cm3 (also called cc)

3 9 3 6 3
2.5km 10 m 10 cm 15
x x  2.5 x10
1 3 3
1km 1m
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METRIC UNITS
• Commonly used capacity-cubic measure equivalents:
 1 milliliter (mL) = 1cubic centimeter (cm3)
 1 liter (L) = 1cubic decimeter (cm3)
 1 liter (L) = 1000 cubic centimeters (cm3)
 1000 liters (L) = 1 cubic meter (m3)
• Commonly used weight (mass) measure equivalents:
 1000 milligrams (mg) = 1gram (g)
 1000 grams (g) = 1kilogram (kg)
 1000 kilograms (kg) = 1 metric ton (t)

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 COMPOUND UNITS

• Products or quotients of two different units

– Converted to smaller or larger equivalent compound unit
measures using unity fractions
– Expressed using per such as kilometers per hour which
indicates division

• Kilometers per hour can be written:

km
km/h, , or kph
h

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COMPOUND UNIT EQUIVALENTS
• Simple needs only one unit to be converted
• Complex needs more than one unit to be converted

Express 78.36 kilometers per hour as meters per minute

78.36km 1000m 1hr 1.306m

   Ans
1hr 1km 60min min

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Extremely large and small measures
 Top and bottom of chart on conversion sheet
 Tera, Giga, Mega are very large (heard in computer world and

astrology)
 micro, nano, pico are very small (heard in biology)

 They work the same in unity fraction method just more conversions.
With these you will use scientific notation in most cases.
 It is 2.4x1020 m to the sun. How far is that in Terameters?
20
2.4 x10 m 1Tm 8
x  2.4 x10 Tm
1 12
10 m
 A cell is 5.7 micrometers thick. How many picometers is that?
12
5.7 m 1m 10 pm 6
x x  5.7 x10 pm
1 6 1m
10 m

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METRIC-CUSTOMARY
CONVERSIONS
 Length  Volume
 1 in = 2.54 cm
3
 1 cu in. (in ) = 16.387

 1 ft = 30.48 cm cm3
 1 fl oz = 29.574 cm
3
 1 yd = 0.9144 m

 1 mi = 1.6093 km  1 tsp = 4.929 mL

 Weight  1 tbsp = 14.787 mL

 1 oz = 28.35 g  1 qt = 0.9464 L

 1 lb = 0.4536 kg  1 gal = 3.785 L

 1 (short) ton = 907.2 kg

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EXAMPLES
 Convert 8.24 in to millimeters

8.24 in 2.54 cm 10 mm
   209.296 mm Ans
1 1 in 1 cm

 Convert 9.25 ft2 to square centimeters

2 2
9.25 ft 0.0929 m 10 000 cm 2 2
   8593.25 cm Ans
1 2 2
1 ft 1m

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PRACTICE PROBLEMS
1. Express 63 meters as centimeters
2. Express 4.75 Dekameters as kilometers
3. Express 0.0076 hectometers as millimeters
4. Express 49.3 decimeters as Dekameters
5. Express 0.084 square decimeters as square centimeters
6. Express 1.09 square Dekameters as square hectometers
7. Express 2.5 cubic feet as cubic meters

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PRACTICE PROBLEMS (Cont)
8. Express 123,500 cubic inches as cubic centimeters
9. Express 1,260 cm3 as dm3
10. Express 1.268 cubic meters as cubic centimeters
11. Express 13.5 liters as gallons
12. Express 4.6 cubic meters as cubic inches
13. Express 18.2 ft/min as km/hr
14. Express 1.2 short tons/cubic foot as pounds/cubic inch

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PRACTICE PROBLEMS (Cont)
15. A bullet travels at 1500 miles per hour. How many meters per
second is that?
16. You receive measurements that specify a 2.5 square meter
area for a new machine. How many square inches do you need
to clear out?
17. A map in Canada says it is 350 kilometers to the next city. How
many miles is the trip?
18. A cell has a thickness of 3.2 nanometers. In scientific notation,
how many meters is that?
19. If a circuit needs 0.5 Megawatts, how many deciwatts are
needed?
20. If I have a tank that holds 350 gallons, how many milliliters
does it hold?

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PROBLEM ANSWER KEY

1. 6300 cm 11. 3.57 gal

2. 0.0475 km 12. 280710 cu in
3. 760 mm 13. 19.97 km/hr
4. 0.493 dam 14. 1.389 lb/ cu in
5. 8.4 cm2 15. 670.57m/sec
6. 0.0109 hm2 16. 3875.04 in2
7. 0.07079 m3 17. 217.49 mi
8. 2.024 m3 18. 3.2x10-9 m
9. 1.26 dm3 19. 5.0x106 dw
10. 1268000 cm3 20. 1324750 mL

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