Length

Length

Introduction

before reading this post please know about the basics of measurement

In this post, we are going to learn about length. We will learn the metric system of length and the Us standard system of length and how to convert between both of them.

The metric system of length

The base unit of the metric system of length is a meter.

Remember: That a meter is 1/299,798,458 per second in the speed of light.

 

A millimeter is 1/1000 of a meter
A centimeter is 1/100 of a meter
A decimeter is 1/10 of a meter

1 meter  (base unit)

A decameter is ×10 the meter  
A hectometer is ×100 the meter
A kilometer is ×1000 the meter

every unit has an abbreviation. the abbreviations are in the below image…

 

 

Conversion between metric units

 

 

 

Conversion between the metric units is easy. We just have to shift the decimal point.

Remember: if we want to convert any small metric unit to a bigger metric unit we shift the point to the left.

example.

254m=? hectometers.

here converting Small –> large  So need to shift the decimal point to left.

254 (shift 2 times to the left)

2.54

so…

254 m = 2.54 hm

And for converting from greater to smaller units we shift the decimal to the right

 

26 km = ? hectometers

26 (shift 1 times to the right)

260,0

so…

26k m = 260.0 hm

The US standard system of length (Distance)

The US standard system of length doesn’t have much of a pattern. like the metric system of length.

 

Here are the units we use to measure distance. (small to big)

 

Inches
Feet
Yard
mile

 

Remember these basic conversions so it can help in learning the conventions between units.

 

Units

1 inch=2.5cm
1 feet=12 inch
1 yard=3 feet
1 mile=1760 feet

 

here are the abbreviations of units…

Unit                abbreviation

1 inch                    in
1 feet                     ft
1-yard                   yd
1 mile                     mi

 

 

Conversion between US standard units of length and metric units of length.

we can’t convert the US standard units of length like we converted for the metric system of length.

 

so there is a simple formula for this.

example 1 : 

7mi  = ?  km

step1: find the unit value for the know value inthis example 7mi is known value.

1 mi = 1.6 km

step 2:  multiply the value

     7 mi                    1.6 km
———–     X          ————
     1                          1 mi

                7 mi                    1.6 km
step 3:   ———–     X          ————
              1                          1 mi

step 4: 7 X 1.6 km =   11.2 km

make sure after calculation, mention  unit is very importent.

 

example 2: 

7 km  = ? mi

step1: find the unit value for the know value inthis example 7mi is known value.

1 mi = 1.6 km

find the 1 km from above formula..

1 km =  1 / 1.6 mi

step 2:  multiply the value

     7 km                  1 / 1.6 mi
———–     X          ————
     1                          1 km

                7 km                    1/1.6 mi
step 3:   ———–     X          ————
              1                          1 km

step 4: 7 X 1
                  ——–    
                  1.6 km

                   7
          =>  ——–   km
                  1.6 

         =>     4.375 km

make sure after calculation, mention  unit is very importent.

 

 

Remember these conventions so we can apply the above formula to any conversion.