Metric Stairs

1
Metric Stairs

• How to do Metric Conversions

2
Metric System

• System of measurement.
• Designed to be easy to use and universal. (built
  on powers of ten)
• Correct name is the International System of
  Units( or SI for short).

3
Built on a Root

• Each property of matter has a root word that is
  the base measurement for that property.
• For example
• Grams (g) are for mass
• Liters (L) are for volume
• Meters (m) are for distance

4
Add a Prefix

• To change the value of the root (make it bigger
  or smaller), you add a prefix
• Smaller
• Milli (m) 1/1000 of the root (1000 times
  smaller)
• Centi (c) 1/100 of the root (100 times smaller)
• Deci (d) 1/10 of the root (10 times smaller)
• Bigger
• Deka (dk) 10 times bigger than root
• Hecto (h) 100 times bigger than root
• Kilo (k) 1000 times bigger than root.

5
Easy Conversions

• You can use this simple drawing to convert any
  metric measurement to another metric measurement.
• The stairs have 7 steps going down left to right

kilo-
hecto-
deka-
root
deci-
centi-
milli-
6
How does it work?

• First, identify the prefixes you are being asked
  to convert between.
• Example Convert 2.345 cm into hectometers
• cm is centimeters and change is to hectometers.

kilo-
hecto-
deka-
root
deci-
centi-
milli-
7
How does it Work?

• Next draw out the stairs.
• Third, put a mark on the starting prefix (centi
  in our example problem)

kilo-
hecto-
deka-
root
deci-
centi-
milli-
8
How does it Work?

• Fourth, walk up/down the stairs to the prefix
  you are converting to (hecto in our example)
• Count the number of steps you traveled and note
  direction as either left or right.

4
Left
3
kilo-
hecto-
2
deka-
1
root
deci-
centi-
milli-
9
How Does it Work

• Now go to the original number (2.345) and move
  the decimal point the same direction and number
  of steps as you did on the stairs.

Fill in empty spaces with zeroes
Add new prefix
2.345
0.0002345
hm
4 spaces left
10
Practice

• Convert 4.3 km to meters
• Convert 462 cg to hg
• Convert 1 mL to kL