Transcript By Tens and Tenths - Concordia College

By Tens and Tenths
Metric Measurement
Hannah Stevens
Earliest Standards
Span, palm, digit, foot
King Henry I: yard
Bishop Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
– 1790: swinging pendulum
French Academy of Sciences
– Meridian arc
Metric Prefixes
Greek
–
–
–
–
–
gigameter
megameter
kilometer
hectometer
decameter
meter
= 1,000,000,000 meters
= 1,000,000 meters
= 1000 meters
= 100 meters
= 10 meters
= 1 meter
Latin
–
–
–
–
–
decimeter
centimeter
millimeter
micrometer
nanometer
= .1 meter
= .01 meters
= .001 meters
= .000001 meters
= .000000001 meters
The System
Design
– Kilogram = liter
– Grade vs. Radian
a = s/r
1875: Treaty of the Meter
International System
of Units (SI)
Length
Mass
Time
Electric current
Thermodynamic
meter
kilogram
second
ampere
Kelvin
m
kg
s
A
K
mole
mol
candela
cd
temperature
Amount of
substance
Luminous intensity
The Meter Redefined
1960
– 1,650,763.73 x wavelength from krypton-86
1983
– Distance light travels in a vacuum in
1/299,792,458 of a second
Metrics in the US
1866 law legalizes use
Treaty of the Meter
Metric Conversion Act of 1975
Other countries:
– Liberia
– Myanmar
Conversions
1 US gallon = 3.79 liters
1 US quart = 0.95 liters
1 US pound = 0.45 kilograms
To convert temperature:
– Celsius = (5/9)*(Fahrenheit – 32)
Metric mile = 1.5 kilometers
Sources
Berlinghoff, William P. and Fernando Q. Gouvea. Math
Through the Ages: A Gentle History for Teachers and Others.
Farmington, ME: Oxford House Publishers, 2002.
International System of Units from NIST. October 2000. NIST.
27 Jan 2007 http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html.