SI System of Measurement

Key Questions

  • Why are SI units helpful?

    SI units provide a way for scientists around the world to record information about observations in a manner that all scientists around the world will understand.

    Imagine if scientists in the US had one way of measuring mass, scientists in Europe had a different method, and scientists in Asia had a third method. Nobody would really know what anyone else was talking about.

    The Mars Climate Orbiter mission provides a great example of why using SI units is so important.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

    mrpauller.weebly.com · 3 · Mar 24 2014
  • How do you convert SI units?

    Multiply or divide by powers of 10.

    SI units are easy to convert because you multiply or divide by 10 - sometimes more than once. Think of a staircase - every time you step up a stair, you divide by 10; every time you step down a stair, you multiply by 10.

    s2.hubimg.com

    Another way to think of it is: as you move down the staircase, the decimal moves to the right; as you climb up the staircase, the decimal moves to the left.

    If you need to memorize the order of the prefixes, there are a number of mnemonics that can help you. My personal favorite is "King Henry Dropped over Dead Converting Metrics."

    Videos from: Noel Pauller

    Biology_geek · 3 · Apr 10 2014
  • What are the SI units?

    Answer:

    See below

    Explanation:

    Wikipedia is a good source for information on this type of questions, so I'd advice you to go there.

    You find your answer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units

    Roy Ø. · 1 · Jun 20 2018

Questions

Measurement