1. Early Measurement History to Metric System

2. What Do the Following Terms Mean?
Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
What Do the Following Terms Mean?
The Cubit . . .
The Fathom . . .
The Hand/span . . .
The Pace . . .
The Foot . . .
The Girth . . .
The Palm . . .

3. Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
The Cubit
The cubit was the measurement used by the Egyptians to build the pyramids.
The cubit is the measure from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger when your arm is extended.

4. Early Measurement History
The Fathom
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
The fathom was used by seamen to measure the depth of water so that boats would not run aground and be stranded.
The fathom is the measure from fingertip to fingertip when your arms are stretched sideways as far as they will go. You sometimes see a rope or fabric measured in this way.

5. Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
The Hand-span
The hand-span was used to measure the height of horses. People still describe horses as being so many hands high.
The hand-span is the measure from the tip of your pinky to the tip of your thumb when your hand is stretched out.

6. Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
The Pace
This term was used by the Roman army to judge speed. The term is still used frequently during various types of foot races.
The pace is the measure of distance from one step to another.

7. Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
The Foot
A measurement equal to the length of an individuals foot.
King Henry 1 standardized this measurement, because his foot was 12 inches long.

8. Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
The Girth
Girth was a measurement often used to measure fishing line.
The girth was the measurement around one’s stomach (your belt measure).

9. Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
The Palm
The palm is the width of your four fingers when they are placed together.

10. Some folks found measuring in this fashion to be quite challenging.
Early Measurement History
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1– Lesson 1.3 – Measurement
Some folks found measuring in this fashion to be quite challenging.

11. Enter…The Metric System
By the eighteenth century, dozens of different units of measurement were commonly used throughout the world.
The lack of common standards led to a lot of confusion in trade between countries.
At the end of the century, the French government sought to solve this problem.

12. Enter…The Metric System
In 1790, the French National Assembly commissioned the Academy of Science to design a simple decimal-based system of units.
The system they devised is known as the metric system.
In 1960, the metric system was officially named the Système International d'Unités (or SI for short) and is now used in nearly every country in the world except the United States.

13. Enter…The Metric System
The metre was originally calculated as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator through Paris, but it is now defined in terms of wave length.

14. STOP But…you say, we don’t use the metric system here in the US?
Our distances are measured in miles, our paper in inches, our milk in gallons?
Why? And is this right?

15. Now…
we stop and debate!

16. Post Debate
Okay…so since we have several systems of measurement in place
We need to learn when to use which measurement
And
How to convert between all of them!

17. Why it is so important? CNN News Headline
NASA: Human error caused loss of Mars orbiter
November 10, 1999
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Failure to convert English measures to metric values caused the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, a spacecraft that smashed into the planet instead of reaching a safe orbit, a NASA investigation concluded Wednesday.
The Mars Climate Orbiter, a key craft in the space agency's exploration of the red planet, vanished after a rocket firing September 23 that was supposed to put the spacecraft on orbit around Mars.   

18. The Seven Fundamental SI Units (le Système International, SI)

19. SI Prefixes Common to Chemistry
Unit Abbr.
Exponent
Kilo k
103
Deci d
10-1
Centi c
10-2
Milli m
10-3
Micro 
10-6

20. Metric to English Volume Distance 1 teaspoon = 4.9 milliliters
1 cup = 237 milliliters
1 pint = 473 milliliters
1 quart = 0.9 liters
1 gallon = 3.79 liters
Distance
1 inch = 2.54 cm
1 foot = 0.3 meters
1 yard = 0.9 meters
1 mile = 1.6 kilometers
Weight
1 ounce = 28.4 grams
1 pound = 0.5 kilograms
1 pound = 500 grams

21. Conversions in the metric system are merely a matter of moving a decimal point. The “base unit” means the you have a quantity (grams, meters, Liters, etc without a prefix.

22. Metric Conversions g m L 1000 100 10 0.1 .01 .001 kilo hecto deka Base
unit
deci
centi
milli 1 2 3
18 L
18 liters = milliliters
Example #1: Convert 18 liters to milliliters

23. Metric Conversions g m L 103 102 101 10-1 10-2 10-3 kilo hecto deka
Base
unit
deci
centi
milli 3 2 1
450 mg = g
450 mg
Example #2: Convert 450 milligrams to grams

24. Metric Conversions g m L 103 102 101 10-1 10-2 10-3 kilo hecto deka
Base
unit
deci
centi
milli 1 2 3 4 5 6
20 kg
20 kg = mg
Example #3: Convert 20 kilograms to milligrams