Easy Conversions in the Metric (SI) System



Easy Conversions in the Metric System

The easiest way to make conversions in the metric system (or any system with compatible units!) is to multiply the number you want to convert by a conversion factor that is equivalent to 1 that will allow you to cancel out the units you are going from to the units you are going to. Here’s an example with money!

Let’s say you want to convert 100 pennies to dollars. You know that 100 pennies equals 1 dollar. So multiply 100 pennies times the conversion factor [pic]. The conversion factor is a number that is equivalent to 1 because 100 pennies equals 1 dollar. And any number over itself (or its equivalent) is 1. So, [pic]= 1. When you write your conversion factor in the equation put the units you want to cancel out in the denominator.

Here is the problem solved:

100 pennies =? dollars

100 pennies x [pic][pic] = 1 dollar

Notice that when we did the math above, the pennies cancelled out.

Let’s do another problem:

200 dimes =? pennies

200 dimes x [pic]= 2000 pennies

Notice that we multiplied by a conversion factor that was equivalent to 1 and would allow us to cancel out the dimes to get to pennies. So we used 10 pennies/ 1 dime. As you can see you have to know the relationship between dimes and pennies to pick the right conversion factor! This is also true for the metric system. Let’s do an example with the metric system now.

10 kilometers (km) = ? meters (m)

10 km x [pic]= 10,000 m

Notice that we had to know that there are 1000 meters (m) in 1 kilometer (km) to pick the conversion factor: 1000 m/ 1 km. The Metric System Basics and Conversion paper in your binder lists all the 1 metric units and the prefixes that you must learn in order to pick the right conversion factor! We used the conversion factor 1000 m/ 1 km because it allowed us to convert from the unit we were going from (m) to the unit we were going to (km).

Now you try these problems:

1. 5 dollars =? nickels 2. 30 pennies =? dollars 3. 10,000 m =? Km

4. 600 ml = ? liters (l) 5. 500 cm = ? m 6. 5000 g = ? kg

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