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Essential Metric System Conversions

This document provides information about units of measurement in the metric system including length, volume, pressure, and mass. It defines common prefixes like kilo, centi, and milli. It also presents the "metric staircase" which visually shows the exponential relationships between different metric prefixes and how to convert between units by counting steps on the staircase. For example, it explains that 1 kilometer = 1,000,000 millimeters because there are 6 steps between kilo and milli on the staircase.

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46 views3 pages

Essential Metric System Conversions

This document provides information about units of measurement in the metric system including length, volume, pressure, and mass. It defines common prefixes like kilo, centi, and milli. It also presents the "metric staircase" which visually shows the exponential relationships between different metric prefixes and how to convert between units by counting steps on the staircase. For example, it explains that 1 kilometer = 1,000,000 millimeters because there are 6 steps between kilo and milli on the staircase.

Uploaded by

az2smith
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chemistry Notes

Length
SI unit: Meter (m)

1 kilometer

= 1000. meters = 0.62137 mile

1 meter 1 centimeter 1 nanometer 1 picometer 1 inch 1 ngstrom

= 100. centimeters = 10. millimeters = 1.00 x 10-9 meters = 1.00 x 10-12 meters = 2.54 centimeters (exact) = 1.00 x 10-10 meters

Volume
SI unit: Cubic meter (m3)

1 liter (L) = 1.00 x 10-3m3 = 1000. cm3 = 1.056710 quarts 1 gallon = 4.00 quarts

Pressure
Si unit: Pascal (Pa)

1 pascal

= 1 N/m2 = 1 kg/m * s2

1 atmosphere = 101.325 kilopascals = 760. mmHg = 760 torr = 14.70 lb/in2 = 1.01325 bar 1 bar = 105 Pa (exact)

Mass
SI unit: Kilogram (kg)

1 kilogram = 1000. grams 1 gram 1 pound = 1000. milligrams = 453.59237 grams = 16 ounces 1 ton = 2000. pounds

THE METRIC STAIRCASE


| peta +15 |__ |__ | tera +12 |__ |__ | giga +9 |__ |__ The metric staircase below is a graphic way of showing how metric prefixes interact. It is the same thing as the chart above, but in a more visual representation. Each step is a multiple of ten of the lower step. For instance, 'centi' is on the next step above 'milli,' so a centimeter is ten times larger than a millimeter. Centigram is ten times larger than milligram. There are no common metric prefixes for some powers of ten such as +4,+5,-7, etc. | mega +6 |__ |__ | kilo +3 | hecto +2 | deka +1 | ROOT WORD | deci -1 | centi -2 | milli -3 |__ |__ METRIC SYSTEM DEFINITIONS | micro -6 |__ Metric system definitions are relationships |__ between units with the same rootword that, | nano -9 is, only the prefix changes. The Metric Stair|__ case is just a way to visualize the relationships |__ among the metric prefixes. We make a metric | pico -12 system definition in the following way, using the |__ units kilometer and millimeter as an example: |__ |femto-15 1.Pick the largest metric prefix. Begin the metric definition with |_ one of the larger units, e.g. 1 km = (some number of) millimeters.

2. Count the number of 'steps' down the metric staircase between the two metric prefixes. For instance, kilo- to milli- is six steps. 3. The number of the smaller unit is ten to the power of the number of steps between the metric prefixes. In our example 1 km = 106 mm. Another way to think of it is that the number of zeros of the smaller unit is the number of steps, so 1 km = 1,000,000 mm.

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