Measurement
Must have a standard. A standard is an exact quantity people
agree to use for comparison. A standard means two people using the
same object should get close to the same results.
Standards of the past People used to use
parts of their body to determine the length of something.
The standard would be a part of the king’s anatomy.
The standard yard was the distance from the king’s nose to his outstretched arm
People would use their feet to measure distance
This is how the term foot came about.
Today the standard “foot” in the English system is
12 inches = 1 foot
The English system is very confusing because it has so many
different values
America is the only country that still uses the old English system
Scientists give the English system the thumbs down
Scientists needed an exact and uniform system of weights and measurements
How did the metric system come about?
During the18th century scientists measured the distance from the earth’s equator to its North Pole and divided it into ten million parts.
This is how they came up with the length of the standard meter.
The Meter
The standard for the meter is kept in a safe in France.
The meter stick is a replica of that standard
A meter is made up of 100 centimeters and 1000 millimeters
How the liter came about
Scientists needed a way to measure liquids so they took 10 cm and multiplied it by its length x width x height to come up with a standard for measuring volume
The liter is the size of 10 cm(3) 10cm x 10 cm x 10 cm Length x Width x Height = Volume The liter is used to measure liquids
How the Gram came about
Scientists needed a standard to measure mass.
Mass is the amount of matter in an object
They decided to take one cubic centimeter of water and call it a gram
The time standard
During the 15th century a scientist named Galileo set the standard of time known as the second
The Mistake Two different groups of
scientists were working on the calculations to send a probe to Mars.
The American team did their calculations in the English standard and the other team did it in the metric system (OOPS!)
MARS
This made scientists very upset.
It cost the space program 125 million dollars
It cost the scientists their time
Metric chart Kilo means thousand (1000)
Hecto means hundred (100)
Deca means ten (10) Deci means one-tenth (1/10)
Centi means one-hundredth (1/100)
Milli means one-thousandth (1/1000)
Copy This Down
The Meter- Measures length Length is the distance between two points The Liter –Measures Volume Volume is how much space a liquid takes
up The Gram- Measures mass Mass is how much matter is in an object
Metric chart
How to use the metric chart Rewrite the problem Check for the decimal (if no decimal, put at
end) Where do we start? Put pencil their Were do we go to? # of hopes and direction Do the same with decimals
How the metric system works
kilo hecto deca UNIT deci centi milli (meter, gram or liter)
•100cm = ___ m •100cm = 1.0 m •6.9mm = ___cm •6.9mm = .69 cm
