What is metric units

Help Paul calculate its length in cm. In order to convert inches into centimeters, we will first find the value of 1 inch in cm. The metric system works with some standard set of units such as meter, kilogram, liter, hours respectively to measure length, weight, capacity, and time. The metric system has meter, centimeter, millimeter, and kilometer for length; kilograms and gram for weight; liter and milliliter for capacity; hours, minutes, seconds for time.

Yes, Celsius is a unit of measurement of temperature. And thus, it is also a unit of the metric system. The units they use for measurement include feet, inches, pounds, ounces, etc. Metric System The metric system of measurement is the standard way of measuring distance, calculating height, and most of the other day-to-day items.

What is Metric System? Metric System Examples 3. Origin of Metric System 4. Solved Examples on Metric System Example 1: Anna's mom took 30 minutes to cut the vegetables and another 1 hour to cook them.

By applying what you know about decimals to the metric system, converting among units is as simple as moving decimal points. Here is the first problem from above: How many milligrams are in one decigram? You can recreate the order of the metric units as shown below:. This question asks you to start with 1 decigram and convert that to milligrams.

As shown above, milligrams is two places to the right of decigrams. You can just move the decimal point two places to the right to convert decigrams to milligrams:.

The same method works when you are converting from a smaller to a larger unit, as in the problem: Convert 1 centimeter to kilometers. Note that instead of moving to the right, you are now moving to the left—so the decimal point must do the same:. How many milliliters are in 1 liter? One liter is larger than one milliliter, so you would expect there to be more than one milliliter in 1 liter.

The correct answer is 1, There are milliliters in 1 deciliter. There are 10 milliliters in a centiliter, 10 centiliters in a deciliter, and 10 deciliters in a liter. The metric system is an alternative system of measurement used in most countries, as well as in the United States. The metric system is based on joining one of a series of prefixes, including kilo-, hecto-, deka-, deci-, centi-, and milli-, with a base unit of measurement, such as meter, liter, or gram.

Units in the metric system are all related by a power of 10, which means that each successive unit is 10 times larger than the previous one. This makes converting one metric measurement to another a straightforward process, and is often as simple as moving a decimal point. It is always important, though, to consider the direction of the conversion.

If you are converting a smaller unit to a larger unit, then the decimal point has to move to the left making your number smaller ; if you are converting a larger unit to a smaller unit, then the decimal point has to move to the right making your number larger. Length Mass Volume basic units meter gram liter other units you may see kilometer kilogram dekaliter centimeter centigram centiliter millimeter milligram milliliter.

Common Measurements in Customary and Metric Systems Length 1 centimeter is a little less than half an inch. Mass 1 kilogram is a little more than 2 pounds. Volume 1 liter is a little more than 1 quart.

B kilometer, centimeter, millimeter Correct. D kilometer, foot, decimeter Incorrect. In fact the kilogram already uses this method, as it's a thousand grams , a kilo gram. These prefixes are used for computers too! A megabyte MB is a million bytes, a gigabyte GB is a billion bytes, etc.

We can also combine the meter, kilogram and second to make new Units of Measurement! Here are a few common units that are based on the meter , kilogram and second :. Area is length by length, so the basic unit of area is a square that is 1 meter on each side, in other words one square meter.

Introduction The metric system is the preferred system of scientific units for several reasons: The majority of countries in the world employ the metric system of measurement. The prefixes attached to metric units carry the same meaning for all base units. The metric system is based upon powers of ten, which is convenient because: A measurement in the metric system that is represented by a rational number remains a rational number after metric unit conversion.

The terms mass and weight are often used interchangebly in chemistry.