RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE MEASUREMENT



Relative and Absolute Measurement

If we can measure something to get reliable data we can do science. There are two ways to measure things: RELATIVE and ABSOLUTE.

RELATIVE measurement is measuring something compared to another thing, or estimating things proportionally to one another. For example, knowing that a store is a farther distance than the school, or knowing that one cup has more water than another are relative measurements. Knowing that the stars are farther than the Moon is another relative measurement.

1. Which is a farther distance from Thornton, your house or Central Park?

____________________________

2. Which is further, the Moon or the Sun? ____________________

3. With proportional relative measurement we can build MODELS to help us better understand, spatial (distance) or temporal (time) relationships. For example: It is about 375 times farther to the Sun than the Moon. Notice that we don’t know how far away either is. They could be a few miles away or millions of miles away.

4. Which is farther from the school flagpole, the office or the library? __________.

5. Make up an example below of a temporal (time) relative measurement below! For example the man is older than the child or soccer practice is longer than math class.

ABSOLUTE measurement is measuring things in known amounts with Standard Units. Without units absolute measurements are meaningless! For example: a pencil is 5 inches, or a glass of water is 500 milliliters. What units would you use to measure the distance to Central Park? ________________

What units do we use to measure a person’s age? ____________

What units do we use to measure gasoline for our automobiles? ___________

6. What units do most other countries use to measure gasoline for their cars? (hint: most countries use metric) ________________

7. What units do we use to measure the distances to stars? You might not know this unit, but take a guess anyway! ________________

8. Below write down any 6 units of ABSOLUTE measure you can think of:

9. The U.S. uses the British (also known as Imperial) Standard units of measure. These units include: feet, inches, gallons, pounds, etc. What units system does most of the rest of the world use? __________________ Metric is part of a bigger system of units of measure called: ___________________________ and is used by scientists and engineers!

10. To convert between metric and British Standard always requires a specific conversion number. Nobody would ever bother to remember these specific conversion numbers. Instead we look them up. Try some below:

a. Convert 100 km to miles. (Multiply by 0.62) __________

b. Convert 300 meters to years (Multiply by 1.09)_____________

c. Convert 20 liters to gallons (Multiply by 0.26)_____________

The metric system of units is based on what number? ______________

Is the British Standard of measurement based on any number? ____________

11. Both RELATIVE and ABSOLUTE measurements can be made in the same case.

For example: it is 3 miles to a park and three times further to the store. How far is it to the store? ___________________

Here’s another: a glass of water holds 20 milliliters (ml.). Another glass holds 10 times that much. How much does the other glass hold? _______________

Which type of measurement came first: absolute or relative? Write your answer below!

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