Measurement: The Metric System, Tools and Practice
Length- Length is the distance between two points.
- The standard unit for measuring length is the meter.
- The tool used to measure length is the meter stick, or metric ruler.
How to read the meter stick:
Here is a section of a meter stick
The entire length = 1 m = 100 cm = 1000 mm
- The major divisions are the numbered lines.
- There is 1 cm between each numbered. line.
- There are 10 millimeter lines between .each cm.
There are three measurements pointed out on this illustration.
-72.0 cm - directly on a numbered line
-72.5 cm - 5 lines past the 72 cm line
-71.2 cm - 2 lines past the 71 cm line
Measuring Length: Examples
- The meter stick used to measure this truck is 1 meter long and the meter is 100 centimeters.
- The truck is small so it is only a portion of a meter. So we would report our measurement more accurately in centimeters.
- We measure to the end of the truck and determine that it is 7 and ½ centimeters (cm) long.
- We can express this portion using decimal numbers - 7.5 cm or .075 m.
Measuring Length
In the image a desk was measured
It was one whole meter stick plus the length of the stick up to the point indicated by the pencil.
What is the length of the table in centimeters? ______
What is the measurement in meters? _______
You can use you're the metric bar from the metric notes page from earlier in the activity for help with converting if needed.
Hint: Notice that you must count or estimate the number of smaller lines between the numbered lines.