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All You Will Need to Know About Metric(

All You Will Need to Know About Metric(
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All You Will Need to Know About Metric
(For Your Everyday Life)
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10 Metric is based on the Decimal system

The metric system is simple to learn. For use in your everyday life you will need to know only ten units. You will also need to get used to a few new temperatures. Of course, there are other units which most persons will not need to learn. There are even some metric units with which you are already familiar; those for time and electricity are the same as you use now.
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BASIC UNITS
Meter: a little longer than a yard (about 1.1 yards) {short description of image}
Liter: a little larger than a quart (about 1.06 quarts)
Gram: a little more than the weight of the paper clip


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25 Degrees Fahrenheit

 COMMON PREFIXES
(to be used with basic units)
milli: one-thousandth (0.001)
centi:one-hundredth (0.01)
kilo: one-thousand times (1000)

For example:
1000 millimeters = 1 meter
100 centimeters = 1 meter
1000 meters = 1 kilometer
1 LITER
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1 QUART


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25 Degrees Celsius

OTHER COMMONLY USED UNITS
millimeter: 0.001 meter - diameter of a paper clip wire
centimeter: 0.01 meter - a little more than the width of a paper clip (about 0.4 inch)
kilometer: 1000 meters - somewhat further than 1/2 mile (about 0.6 miles)
kilogram: 1000 grams - a little more than 2 pounds (about 2.2 pounds)
milliliter: 0.001 liter - five of them make a teaspoon

OTHER USEFUL UNITS
hectare: about 2 1/2 acres
metric ton: about one ton
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1 pound
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1 Kilogram

Main Page

For further information contact:

Director, Metric Program
Building 820, Room 306
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
(301) 975-3690 phone, (301) 948-1416 fax
email: metric_prg@nist.gov
URL Address: http://www.nist.gov/metric

NIST LC 1136
October 1997

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