Metric Linear Measurement and Your Body

By Lou Loftin

When teaching linear measurements for the metric system, I like using references to the body.

1 millimeter - If you look down on your thumbnail it is about 1 mm thick (not wide) or about the thickness of a dime = 1 mm.

1 centimeter - If you could put 10 of your thumb nails together = 10 mm, it would be about the thickness of your pinky = 1 cm.

1 decimeter – If you could put 10 pinkies together = 10 cm, it would be about the width of your hand = 1 dm. Thumb in for big kids and adults, thumb out for smaller kids = 1 dm.

1 meter – If you could put 10 hands side by side = 10 dm, it would be about, with one arm straight out from your side, the length from the tip of your extended hand to the opposite shoulder = 1m. ______

The meter is the base for linear measurement with the metric system also known as System International (SI).

milli- means thousandth (1 millimeter (1 mm) = 0.001 or 1/1000 of a meter)

centi- means hundredth (1 centimeter (1 cm) = 0.01 or 1/100 of a meter)

deci- means tenth (1 decimeter (1 dm) = 0.1 or 1/10 of a meter)

kilo- means thousand (1 kilometer (1 km) = 1000 meters) a little over a half mile or 1 km = about .62 of a mile.

1 cc or 1 cm3 = 1 mL = 1 g of pure H2O at Standard Atmospheric Conditions (SAC)

1 dm3 = 1 L = 1 kg of pure H2O at SAC

1 m3 = 1 kL = 1 metric ton of pure H2O at SAC

1 N (Newton) = gravitational pull of 100g