Metric Conversions Flashcards
What does mega mean
1,000,000
M
What does King Henry Died by Drinking Chocolate Milk mean?
Kilo Hecto Deca BASE Deci Centi Milli
(Excludes Mega and Micro)
What does kilo mean
1,000
k
What does hecto mean
100
h
What does deca mean
10
da
What are the base units
Meter
Gram
Liter
What does deci mean
1/10
d
What does centi mean
1/100
c
What does milli mean
1/1,000
m
What does micro mean
1/1,000,000
What are units?
Standards of measurement for physical quantities that need clear definitions to be useful
What is a base unit
Carefully defined and cannot be derived from other units
What are derived units
Carefully defined and can be defined from base units
What is volume
How much space something takes up
Where do the first units date back to and what was their unit of length
Indus Valley Civilization
Cubit
What did a system of measurement need to be
1) Clearly defined
2) Reproducible
3) It’s meaning will not change with time
4) Easy to understand and to convert between similar units
Who first created the metric system and what did they define the meter as?
The French Academy of Scientists
1/10,000,000 of the distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona
What is a nano
1/1 billion time smaller than the unit it precedes
1,000,000,000
n
What is a pico
1 trillion times smaller than the unit it precedes
1,000,000,000,000
p
What were the problems with the metric system
1) what if the platinum meter bar was stolen
2) too many derived units were being created with the discovery of new entities such as energy and force
What did scientists do to the Metric System in 1960?
They renamed it the International System of Units or SI system for short.
How was the meter redefined
Distance light can travel in a certain fraction of a second
How many base units are there and what are they
7
Meter m Length
Kilograms kg Mass
Second s Time
Ampere A Electric Current
Kelvin K Temperature
Mole mol Amount of Substance
Candela cd Luminous Intensity
What were some problems with the SI system?
1) the prefix kilo in kilogram suggested that the gram was the true base unit
2) Many of the base units are not of convenient size
