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The United States is one of only three countries in the world which has not converted to the metric system of measurement. Even England converted from the English system to metric back in the 1970s. Scientists throughout the world have adopted the metric system, and thus you will need to be comfortable with metric units in your earth science class.
The nice thing about the metric system is that it's much easier to use than the English system because units of length, area volume and mass are directly related, and all measurements of different sizes vary by factors of 10. For example, can you quickly calculate how many inches are in a mile, or how many cubic feet are in a gallon? With the metric system it's a snap to determine that there are 100,000 centimeters in a kilometer, or 1000 liters in a cubic meter.
Test your knowledge of the metric system on the questions below, or click here to visit a page with English/metric conversion problems.
1. For each of the following, determine whether the unit is English or metric, and whether it is used for measurements of length, volume, mass, heat, temperature or time.
2. A handy feature of the metric system is that the same prefixes are used throughout the system of measurement. The prefixes you will see most often are kilo, centi and milli. Kilo means 1,000, centi 1/100 and milli 1/1000. How many meters are in one kilometer? How many milligrams are in one gram? How many meters are in one centimeter?
3. Practice converting metric units:
3,486 gm = _____ kg
12 ml = ______ l
2.45 km = _____ mm
4. You can remember the relationship between length and volume in the metric system by remembering that 1 cubic centimeter (1 cm3) is exactly the same volume as 1 milliliter. If this is true, how many cubic centimeters are there in 1 liter?
5. It's important to be clear on the distinction between heat and temperature when dealing with surficial processes on the earth. Heat is a measure of the energy of molecular motion, while temperature measures the amount of molecular motion in a substance at a particular time (the state of the system). For example, you may boil a large pot of water and a small pot of water on the stove. Both pots will end up with the same temperature, but the large pot will require much more heat energy to boil than the small pot.
The Celsius (centigrade) temperature scale is handy for earth scientists because it uses water as its benchmark. At sea level temperature and pressure on the earth, water will freeze at 0° C and boil at 100° C. One degree C thus equals 1/100 of the temperature difference between the boiling and freezing points of water.
What are the boiling and freezing points of water in °F? Boiling: Freezing:
How many degrees F separate these two temperatures?
What is the relationship between °C and °F?
Click here to check your answers
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06/25/0313 Oct 2009 09:18:26 -0700