Metric system help?!?!?

Question

hi . i REALLY suck at measurments. can anyone tell me an easier way to converty measurements?? i have this

km hm dam m dm cm mm

how can i make converting easier??

examples would help

tanks

Answer 1

Since you only need help with metric conversions, here is the explanation.

Create a diagram showing the metric units from largest to smallest.

km...hm...dam...m....dm....cm...mm

Suppose you want to convert 10m to cm.

Starting at m on the diagram above, you move two places to the right to reach cm.  We know the decimal for 10 is right after the zero. Since we are going to move the decimal two places to the right, first add two zeroes after the decimal point to make it 10.00 so moving the decimal two places to the right is easier to see.

Therefore, 10m = 1000cm.

Suppose you want to convert 2400dm to hm.

Starting at dm on the diagram above, you move three places to the left to reach hm. In this case, there are enough numbers so we don't have to add any zeroes. So to convert 2400dm to hm, move the decimal three places to the left of 2400 and you get 2.4. Therefore, 2400dm = 2.4hm.

Suppose you want to convert 24dm to hm.

Starting at dm on the diagram above, you move three places to the left to reach hm. In this case, we only have two digits, so we will have to add at least one zero before the 2 to give us three digits for the three place move.

Therefore, 24dm is equivalent to .024hm.