10-01 Metric units

Length 1 cm = 10 mm Capacity 1 L = 1000 mL

1 m = 100 cm = 1000 mm 1 kL = 1000 L
1 km = 1000 m 1 ML = 1000 kL = 1000 000 L
× 1000 × 1000 000

× 1000 × 100 × 10 × 1000 × 1000 × 1000

km m cm mm ML kL L mL
÷ 1000 ÷ 100 ÷ 10 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000

÷ 1000 ÷ 1 000 000

Mass 1 g = 1000 mg Time 1 min = 60 s

1 kg = 1000 g 1 h = 60 min = 3600 s
1 t = 1000 kg 1 day = 24 h
× 3600

× 1000 × 1000 × 1000 × 24 × 60 × 60

t kg g mg da y h min s
÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 24 ÷ 60 ÷ 60

÷ 3600

Other than for time, units of the metric system have prefixes based on powers of 10.
• kilo- means 1000 (thousand) or 103 1 kilogram ¼ 1000 grams
• mega- means 1 000 000 (million) or 106 1 megalitre ¼ 1 000 000 litres
• centi- means 1 (hundredth) or 102 1 centimetre ¼ 1 metre
100 100
• milli- means 1 (thousandth) or 103 1 millilitre ¼ 1 litre
1000 1000

Example 1
Convert:
a 5.8 t to kg b 16 km to cm c 23 700 mL to L d 1500 min to h

Solution
a 5:8 t ¼ 5:8 3 1000 kg To convert from large to small units, multiply (3).
¼ 5800 kg × 1000
t kg
 b 16 km ¼ 16 3 1000 3 100 cm × 100
× 1000
¼ 1 600 000 m km m cm

c 23 700 mL ¼ 23 700 4 1000 L To convert from small to large units, divide (4).
¼ 23:7 L
L mL
÷ 1000

d 1500 min ¼ 1500 4 60 h

h min
¼ 25 h
÷ 60

Metric prefixes
This table shows a more detailed list of metric prefixes.

Prefix
(abbreviation) Meaning Example
pico (p) 1012
nano (n) 109 ¼ 1 nanosecond (ns) ¼ billionth of a second
1 000 000 000
micro (m) 106 ¼ 1 microgram (mg) ¼ millionth of a gram
1 000 000
milli (m) 103 ¼ 1 millibar (mbar) ¼ thousandth of a bar (air
1000
pressure)
centi (c) 102 ¼ 1 centilitre (cL) ¼ hundredth of a litre
100
deci (d) 101 ¼ 1 decibel (dB) ¼ tenth of a bel (sound level)
10
1
deca (da) 10 ¼ 10 decametre (dam) ¼ ten metres
2
hecto (h) 10 ¼ 100 hectopascal (hPa) ¼ hundred pascals (air
pressure)
kilo (k) 103 ¼ 1000 kilojoule (kJ) ¼ thousand joules (energy)
6
mega (M) 10 ¼ 1 000 000 megahertz (MHz) ¼ million hertz
(frequency)
giga (G) 109 gigawatt (GW) ¼ billion watts (power)
12
tera (T) 10 terabyte (TB) ¼ trillion bytes (computer
memory)

Digital memory
Metric prefixes are used in units of digital (computer) memory. A byte, abbreviated B, is the
amount of memory used to store one character, such as @, g, #, 7 or ?.
 Summary

Unit Relationship Size

kilobyte (kB) 1 kB ¼ 1000 B About half a page of text.
megabyte (MB) 1 MB ¼ 1000 kB A million bytes, about the size of a novel.
gigabyte (GB) 1 GB ¼ 1000 MB A billion bytes, about 600 photos or
7.5 hours of video.
terabyte (TB) 1 TB ¼ 1000 GB A trillion bytes, about the size of all of
the books in a large library.

× 1000 × 1000 × 1000 × 1000

TB GB MB kB B
÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000

Some examples of digital memory sizes:

E-mail (without attachment): 50 kB YouTube video: 7 MB per minute
Web page: 400 kB CD: 750 MB
Photo: 800 kB DVD: 8 GB
Music file: 6 MB Blu-ray disc: 27 GB

Example 2
Convert:
a 3.2 MB to kB b 147 000 MB to GB c 0.56 TB to GB

Solution
a 3:2 MB ¼ 3:2 3 1000 kB To convert from large to small units,
¼ 3200 kB multiply (3).
× 1000
MB kB

b 147 000 MB ¼ 147 000 4 1000 GB To convert from small to large units,
¼ 147 GB divide (4).

GB MB
÷ 1000

× 1000
c 0:56 TB ¼ 0:56 3 1000 GB
TB GB
¼ 560 GB
Very small and very large units
Some very small and very large units of length, distance and time also use metric prefixes.
Length and distance
• One nanometre (nm) ¼ 1 m: your fingernails grown 1 nm every second, the
1 000 000 000
diameter of a helium atom is 0.1 nm
• One micrometre (mm) ¼ 1 m: used to measure diameters of bacteria
1 000 000
• One megametre (Mm) ¼ 1 000 000 m or 1000 km: the distance between Sydney and Brisbane,
or the length of the Bathurst 1000 car race
• One gigametre (GM) ¼ 1 000 000 000 m: the diameter of the Sun is 1.4 GM
• One astronomical unit (AU) ¼ 149 597 871 km or 149.6 GM: the average distance between
the Earth and the Sun, used to measure distances between planets in our solar system
• One light year (ly) ¼ 9.46 3 1012 km: the distance light travels in a year, for measuring
distances between stars
• One parsec (pc) ¼ 3.09 3 1013 km or 3.26 ly: for measuring distances between stars, the
nearest star Proxima Centauri is 1.30 parsecs away
Time
• One nanosecond (ns) ¼ 1 s: the time it takes electricity to travel along a 30 cm wire
1 000 000 000
• One microsecond (ms) ¼ 1 s
1 000 000
• One millisecond (ms) ¼ 1 s: the duration of the flash on a camera
1000
• One decade ¼ 10 years
• One century ¼ 100 years
• One millennium ¼ 1000 years
• One mega-annum (Ma) ¼ 1 000 000 years: used in geology and paleontology, the
Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur lived 65 Ma ago
• One giga-annum (Ga) ¼ 1 000 000 000 years: the Earth was formed 4.57 Ga ago

Example 3
Convert:
a 0.73 s to ms b 25 610 000 km to AU
c 4.57 Ga to years d 1 920 000 nm to m

Solution
a 0:73 s ¼ 0:73 3 1 000 000 ls To convert from large to small units,
¼ 730 000 ls multiply (3).
b 25 610 000 km ¼ 25 610 000 4 149 597 871 AU To convert from small to large units,
¼ 0:17119 . . . divide (4).
 0:17 AU
c 4:57 Ga ¼ 4:57 3 1 000 000 000 years d 1 920 000 nm ¼ 1 920 000 4 1 000 000 000 m
¼ 4 570 000 000 years ¼ 1:92 3 103 m
¼ 0:001 92 m
 Exercise 10-01 Metric units

1 What metric unit would you use for each measurement?

a Width of a computer screen b Mass of a plane
c Distance between two towns d Capacity of a car’s fuel tank
e Amount of water in a pool f Time taken to fly overseas
2 Convert:
a 750 g to mg b 36 kL to L c 67 kg to g d 1.5 L to mL
e 6.7 cm to mm f 3.5 km to m g 9.4 t to kg h 3.75 g to mg
i 4.25 m to cm j 0.2 kg to g k 26.2 L to mL l 0.3 km to m
m 3 kL to mL n 4 days to min o 15 h to s p 2.7 km to cm
q 5 kg to mg r 0.7 m to mm s 29.375 t to g t 18.14 km to mm
3 How many mL in 18.9 kL? Select the correct answer A, B, C or D.
A 1 890 000 B 18 900 000 C 189 000 D 18 900
4 Select the most appropriate answer A, B or C for each measurement.
a height of a door
A 20 cm B 200 cm C 20 m
b capacity of a soft drink can
A 37.5 mL B 375 mL C 3.5 L
c time to run 100 metres
A 12.3 s B 34.3 s C 50.3 s
d height of Sydney Tower
A 30.5 m B 3050 m C 305 m
e mass of a family car
A 100 kg B 1000 kg C 10 000 kg
Shutterstock.com/Jose Gil
 5 Convert:
a 8000 L to kL b 90 mm to cm c 180 s to min
d 240 min to h e 375 mL to L f 14 700 kg to t
g 8600 mg to g h 750 cm to m i 223 mm to cm
j 800 g to kg k 125 L to kL l 3.5 kg to t
m 17 000 000 mg to kg n 7200 min to days o 45 000 000 g to t
p 144 000 s to h q 86 400 s to days r 2500 cm to km
s 75 000 mL to kL t 34 700 mm to m
6 How many km in 408 m? Select the correct answer A, B, C or D.
A 4.08 B 0.408 C 0.0408 D 0.004 08
7 Convert:
a 4.8 MB to kB b 2.1 TB to GB c 8.5 GB to MB
d 10.8 MB to B e 2910 B to kB f 740 MB to GB
g 1050 kB to MB h 5900 GB to TB i 0.94 kB to MB
j 57 GB to MB k 0.43 GB to kB l 21 TB to GB
m 7.8 kB to B n 2180 MB to GB o 42 000 B to MB
p 940 MB to kB
8 Mala made a 3-minute phone call to her friend in Queensland using the Internet application
Skype at 1.2 MB per minute. How many kB did she use?
9 Calculate the number of MP3 files of average size 3.7 MB that can be stored on a 16 GB
MP3 player.
10 Convert, correct to two significant figures where necessary:
a 3.5 AU to km b 6000 ms to s c 7.5 centuries to years
d 12 000 000 nm to m e 0.64 GM to m f 2.1 ly to km
g 0.07 s to ms h 0.25 Ma to years i 4 800 000 ms to s
j 5 290 000 km to Mm k 0.2 pc to km l 6 mm to mm
m 0.94 Ma to millennia n 849 years to centuries o 8 3 1014 km to ly
p 0.000 008 cm to nm