Name___________________Date_________Period_
Metric System (the international system of measurement)-Measurement and
Conversion
3 units of metric measurement:
Length (Base unit: METER)
Mass (Base Unit: GRAM)
m=width of a single bed/little longer than yard
g=1 medium paper
stick
clip; 1 dollar bill
mm=about the thickness of a dime
kg=almost 2 pounds;
cm=width of a fingernail/radius of nickel
textbook
dm=width of a cd case
km=just over ½ mile/distance around a city block mg=very small insect
Volume (Base unit: LITER)
l=about 1 quart or ½ of 2
liter bottle of soda
ml=drop of water; about ¼
teaspoon
Note : There are no fractions in the metric system…only decimals! For example, in metrics (SI), ½ is .5
A helpful acronym for learning metric prefixes is:
King Henry Died By Drinking Chocolate Milk.
Prefix
KING
HENRY
DIED
BY
DRINKING
CHOCOLATE
MILK
Kilo
Hecto
Deka
BASE UNIT
Deci
Centi
Milli
d
Tenths
.10
d
Hundredths
.01
thousandths
(Meter/Gram/Liter)
Abbrev.
Place
Value
k
Thousands
1,000
h
Hundreds
100
dk or da
Tens
10
m/g/l
Ones
1
from smaller to larger
unit
from larger unit to smaller
unit
•move decimal LEFT
(Division) the appropriate
number of spaces
•move decimal RIGHT
(Multiplication) the
appropriate number of
spaces
m
.001
Use place value to convert from one unit to another. Each place value is 10 times as large as the
place value to the right. To help you determine how many spaces right or how many spaces left
you need to move the decimal, use the “King Henry Slider” below:
In Class Practice/Examples:
1. 35 mm = _______ cm
Need to move ________ spaces to the ________.
2. 16 mm = ______ km
Need to move ______ spaces to the __________.
3. 43.4 L = ______ mL
Need to move ______spaces to the ________.
4. 450 mg = _______ g
Need to move _______spaces to the ________.
Metric Conversion Practice:
1. 50 cm =
mm
9. 9 kg =
2. .75 kg =
g
10. 400 mm = ________ cm
3. 2.32 m =
4. 5.8 L=
5.
0.2 km=
6. 13.65 mL =
7.
_____________ g
11. 10.37 m =
cm
12. 1.12 m =
mL
m
L
1.5 L = ________mL
8. 30.75 cm =_____ mm
___________ cm
km
13. 14.2 kg=
mg
14. 1.86 mL=
L
15. 1.44 L =
mL
16. 12.85 mL=
L