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GEAR UP FOR LIFE
MATH MENTOR:
Measuring distances in the Metric System
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MEASURING METRIC DISTANCES
METER (m):
the basic unit of the metric system. It uses
the Earth as its measuring stick. (One meter is said to be one
ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole.)
The closest measurement to the meter in the
English system is a yard. A yard is just slightly smaller than a meter. It
takes just over 1 yard to make a meter.
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DECIMETER (dm):
10 decimeters equal 1 meter (deci=tenth), so a meter has 10 decimeters.
The closest measurement to the
decimeter in the English system is a foot. A decimeter is
smaller than a foot. It takes just
over 3 decimeters to make 1 foot.
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CENTIMETER
(cm): 100 centimeters equal 1 meter (centi=one
hundredth), so a meter has 100 centimeters. The closest measurement to the
centimeter in the English system is a the inch. A a centimeter is smaller
than an inch. It takes 2.54 cm to
make 1 in.
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MILLIMETER (mm):
1,000 millimeters equal 1 meter. (milli=one
thousandth), so a meter has one thousand millimeters. There is no term in
the English system that is very close to the millimeter. Once we get that
small, the English system uses fractions of an inch. One millimeter is
nearly .004 (four hundredths or 1/400) of an inch. |
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KILOMETER
(km): 1 kilometer is equal to 1,000
meters (kilo means one thousand), so a kilometer has 1,000 meters). The
closest measurement to the kilometer in the English system is the mile. A
kilometer is slightly smaller than a mile.
One mile is about 1.6 kilometers.
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As you can tell, we are talking about
multiples of ten, and all terms end in "meter!"
Click the Math
Mentor icon to learn about converting measurements from metric to the
English system and back. -->>
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