Metric System - Who Knows It?

[Wish Upon A Star]

DD has been staying after to get help with the Metric Conversion in Science . . . .it is very difficult for her and she is becoming frustrated. She is in a basic math course (lower level) and a general Earth Science course. We had selected Earth Science for her because Principles of Science would of been too difficult for her.

Anyone know any good websites or anything that can help her not be so frustrated with this?

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[Indyman]

Try this one.

 

[jel0511]

I'm not sure what conversions you're looking for. Us she trying to convert Metric to English measurements or vice versa, or is she learning how many centimeters are in a meter? If it's how many liters it takes to make a decaliter, that's MUCH easier to figure out. The entire metric system is based on 10's. For example let's do meter, but it applies to all measurements in the metric system. A meter is 1. Now, everything is broken down by by other items. A Centimeter is 1/100th of a meter, therefore there are 100 centimeters in a meter. A milimeter is 1/1000th of a meter, therefore there are 1000 milimeters in a meter. Also, by looking at the fractions, you can deduce there are 10 milimeters in 1 centimeter, since a milimeter is 10 times smaller than a centimeter (10*100 = 1000, just look at the denometer of the fraction). Going up from meter, there is kilometer, which contains 1000 meters. The metric system is all based on factors of 10, with each measurement length, volume, etc having different additions to the word to signify what factor they are. Here is a chart I found, that might help if that is the case:

If she is converting metric to US measurements, there is a chart on this webpage that has all those conversions, but I doubt that what you're looking for. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/metrics/ I hope this helps a little bit!!!!

 

[Claire L]

How about this site for help?

www.thetipsbank.com/convert.htm

Being here in England I have to cope with both due to the Europeans being in metric. Oh why oh why can't they leave us alone to carry on as we always have done?!

Claire

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

Thanks guys!

I really appreciate it . . .I am also clueless when it comes to Metric Conversions, etc . . .I guess I really should go back to school to learn things that I wasn't taught or didn't pay attention to . . .

 

[IamCanadian]

Try

convert-me

 

[Tinkerbellish]

Being in the same classes I say

www.aaamath.com Tells you how to do this stuff simply, and remeber this to remeber the prefixes.

King
Henry's
Dirty
Underware
Does
Cotain
Mold

Kilo
Hecto (I belive)
Deka
Units (liters, grams, etc.)
Deci
Centi
Milli

 

[justjulie]

We've used this one too:


www.onlineconversion.com

P.S. I'm Canadian and I still get confused!

 

[DisneyTeacher]

I don't post but lurk a lot. I had to post to this because this is what I am teaching right now in my science classes.

To go from one metric unit to another move the decimal point the same number of places in the same direction you move on the "metric prefix line". (This works just like a number line.)




kilo hecto deka unit deci centi milli



10 km=______cm

Start at kilo and move to centi counting the number of prefixes you pass to get to centi. ( I have my students put their pencil on the kilo prefix and make one 'jump' past every perfix.) You moved 5 places to the right so move the decimal point 5 places to the right.

10 km= 1,000,000 cm


Second example:

17.56 cg = _________g

Start at the centi box and move two places to the left to get to the unit (gram) box. Now move your decimal point two places to the left.

17.56 cg= 0.1756 g


I box in the table of prefixes giving each prefix a box.

I hope this is clear and helps you and your daughter. I have never gone through this and not been able to show someone how to do it.