METRIC UNIT CONVERSIONS
FIRST!! A sad, sad story:
King Henry died by drinking chocolate milk!
If you can remember that sad, sad story and you can count to seven, then
YOU CAN DO METRIC CONVERSIONS!! Notice, the first letter in each
word in the sad, sad story represents one of the metric prefixes.
K
ing
H
enry
d
ied
by
d
rinking
c
hocolate
m
ilk
Kilo -
k-
Hecto โ
h-
Deka โ
da-
Base
m, g, L,
deci-
d-
centi-
c-
milli-
m-
thousand
hundred
ten
(THE BASE
UNIT)
tenth
hundredth
thousandth
1000 100 10 1 1/10 1/100 1/1000
NOW DRAW A HORIZONTAL LINE WITH SEVEN VERTICAL LINES,
ONE BELOW EACH LETTER.
k- h- da- base d- c- m-
________________________________________________________
Here is how to use this diagram:
When you have a length such a 6.35 km and you want to convert it to cm.
1. Locate the km units on the chart (the k-)
2. Count to the right or left to the cm units on the chart (the c-) - 5 to the
right
3. Move the decimal point of the length the same amount โ 5 to the
right
6.35 km = 635000. cm
5 to the right
4.35 mm = _________ dam
45 dam = _________ cm
0.007 hm = _______ mm
