In our 10-kilometer race example, we would simply multiply 10 (our initial measurement in kilometers) by 10 5 (or 100,000 - the number of centimeters in a kilometer).The units in the denominator will cancel with the units of your initial measurement, leaving your answer in terms of your desired units. In simple conversions like we're dealing with here, just label the units of your initial measurement as you normally would, then label your conversion factor with the fraction (desired units)/(units of your initial measurement).
You'll also be asked to show how you converted your initial unit label to its final form. Sometimes, especially in schoolwork, it's not enough to simply give the correct number.Remember that this number should be a power of ten given by the number of spaces under the arrow you drew in the steps above. Converting from a large unit to a smaller unit means you should multiply your original measurement by the amount that its units differ from the desired final units. Thus, you know that there are 100,000 centimeters in 1 kilometer.įor "large to small" conversions, multiply by the appropriate power of ten. In other words, centimeters are 100,000 times (or 10 5, etc.) times smaller than kilometers. This means that kilometers and centimeters differ by a conversion factor of five powers of ten, also written as ten to the fifth power, 10 5, or 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 100,000. For instance, in our 10-kilometer race example, we see that our arrow from "kilo" to "centi" jumps over five spaces.The number of spaces under your arrow gives the power of ten by which your two units are related. Look at the arrow you've drawn from the units you have - the units your measurement has been taken in - to the units you want to convert to. Thus, converting from one metric unit to another is always accomplished by multiplying or dividing your initial measurement by the appropriate power of ten. Metric units of measurement differ by powers of 10 - 10, 100, 1,000, and so on. The first letter of each word corresponds to a basic metric prefix, in order of largest to smallest, except for the "U" in "Until", which corresponds to "unit," or the metric base units (meter, liter, etc.)ĭetermine the numerical relationship between the units you have and the units you want. A handy trick for remembering the basic metric prefixes is the mnemonic "King Henry Died Until Drinking Chocolate Milk," (or, if you prefer, "King Henry Doesn't Usually Drink Chocolate Milk").X Research source The most common of these prefixes, from "1,000 times larger" to "1,000 times smaller," are: In these cases, we add prefixes to the name of the unit to signify how much bigger or smaller it is than the base unit.
In these cases, it's necessary to use units that differ from the base units by a power of 10 - in other words, measurements that are 10 times larger or smaller, 100 times larger or smaller, and so on. These base units are sometimes either too small or too large to make practical measurements. The metric system has a variety of units of measurement - you have probably heard of meters (which measure distance) and grams (which measure mass), etc.
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