|
Instant
Metric eBook
®© PDF
format 1290 kb eReaders
Universal
• •
•
Instant
Metric Cube ®©
How to Make a Working
Model. FREE!
|
The International System
of Units is called "SI"
and is the Metric Measurement
used in America.
SYMBOLS
IDENTIFY Prefix
and
Base Unit or Derived Unit
of Measure TOGETHER
|
|
|
The
International Bureau of Weights and Measures SI Brochure notes:
"Unit symbols are mathematical entities and not
abbreviations."
Among other things, they are not followed by a period except
at
the end of a sentence and they are not made plural.
|
|
PREFIX SYMBOL
for EVERYDAY USE
c
centi
is 1 one hundredth
(0.01)
m
milli
is 1 one thousandth (0.001)
k
kilo
is 1000 times
as much
|
BASE
and
Derived UNIT
SYMBOL
meter
m
liter
L
kilogram
kg
|
|
Symbols
identify prefix
and base or derived
unit of measure together.
Simply
place the prefix in front of the base
or derived unit
like mm
(millimeter),
cm (centimeter), km
(kilometer) or mg (milligram),
kg (kilogram) and mL
(milliliter).
The size or quantity is indicated by the first letter
or
prefix symbol
and the second letter or symbol
identifies the
base or derived unit.
 |
We easily identify the
prefix centi when we think of 100 cents in the Unit
dollar. We could even refer to it as a "centidollar"
and you come pretty close to doing that anyway by calling it 1
cent. There are exactly 100 cents in a dollar just like
100 cm (centimeters) in a meter.
Got it? It just gets easier.
|
Please Note:
Where
symbols
are used convention has it that they are
always lower case letters except where the
Base Unit is named after a person like Celsius (°C), Pascal (P) or
Newton (N) and 16 other scientists.
Then the symbol is noted by a CAPITAL LETTER.
So what's with a capital letter "L" for
liter?
Is that a capital "L" for the unit of measure
named after a person? No....
You see, when decimal
dimensions were described long before
the typewriter you would have to
write the script .
But
as technology came along it became apparent that typewriters were not
equipped with the script
so attempts were made to use the lower case "l" (el).
Then it became further confusing to write "1l" (lower case
"el") as the "1" and "l" (el)
looked too similar as did the capital "I" (eye).
So the
capital "L"
was chosen as the symbol
for
the derived base unit "liter".
|
|
Use prefixes
in front of the base
or derived unit of measure
OR everyday
make the Quantity, Size or Value smaller by
1 one hundredth (0.01)
even smaller by
1 one thousandth (0.001) OR
BIGGER by 1 000 times as much
|
|
|
|
