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Purpose

Part of the scientific study of our surroundings is learning to measure everything.  This laboratory exercise is designed as a review of the metric system and will provide practice in manipulating metric units.

Basics of Metrics

Scientists and most world governments (except for the US and a few others) have agreed since 1960 for many years that we will use a common measuring system to improve international communication of information.  The agreed upon system is called Le Systeme International d'Unites, which is French for “International System of Units” and is often called the “Metric System” or the “SI system.”  There are seven base units of measure and many derived units that combine some combination of the base units.

• Kelvin – “K” – temperature
• Second – “s” – time
• Meter – “m” – length
• Kilogram – “kg” – mass
• Candela – “cd” – luminous intensity  
• Mole – “mol” – amount of substance
• Ampere – “A” – electric current

Scientific Notation – Powers of Ten

• Any number can be changed by multiplying or dividing by 10 as many times as wished.
• To enlarge a number we multiply by 10X, which means ten multiplied by ten “X” times
• Positive “X” values move the decimal to the right, increasing the number
• 10¹ = 10
• 10² = 100
• 10³ = 1,000
• 10⁴ = 10,000

• Negative “X” values move the decimal to the left, decreasing the number
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Metric Prefixes

Greek prefixes can be added to the base SI units to change how they measure by powers of ten.

Multiples	Name	deca-	hecto-	kilo-	mega-	giga-	tera-	peta-	exa-	zetta-	yotta-
	Prefix	da	H	k	M	G	T	P	E	Z	Y
	Factor	101	102	103	106	109	1012	1015	1018	1021	1024
Fractions	Name	deci-	centi-	milli-	micro-	nano-	pico-	femto-	atto-	zepto-	yocto-
	Prefix	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

Conversions

Converting between unit prefixes and between SI and English measurements is an important math skill.  To do so, you must become comfortable with conversion factors (equivalent units) and the cancelation of units.  Important Rule: always include the unit in the answer of a calculation!

Example 1: Convert 23 kilograms to grams

Example 2: Convert 156 centimeters to meters

Example 3: Given that 1 mile = 1.609 kilometers, convert 2.6 miles to kilometers

Group Exercises

Worksheet