Math Antics - Intro to the Metric System - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12

Math Antics - Intro to the Metric System - By Mathantics

Transcript


00:03	Uh huh . Hi , this is rob . Welcome
00:07	to Math Antics . In this video , we're going
00:09	to introduce the concept of measurement , which is an
00:11	important topic in math and especially in science . We're
00:15	also going to take a look at a particular system
00:16	of measurement called the metric system objects have different physical
00:21	properties , right ? Like size , weight , volume
00:24	, et cetera . Well , the whole point of
00:26	measurement is to quantify those properties , which just means
00:30	expressing them as a number Without measuring . You could
00:33	say that someone is tall or short or that a
00:36	package is heavy or light but those are relative terms
00:39	that don't give us very specific information . Instead ,
00:43	if you were to make actual measurements , you could
00:45	say that someone's height is 130 cm or that a
00:48	package weighs 5.2 kg measurements . Use an actual number
00:52	to describe properties like that so that you can know
00:55	them more precisely . But there's a catch unless you
00:59	know what a centimeter or a kilogram is . Those
01:01	measurements won't be very helpful . Centimeters and kilograms are
01:05	examples of what we call units of measurement . Units
01:08	of measurement are predetermined quantities that we use as references
01:12	. And it's really important to be familiar with common
01:14	units of measurement . So you know what various measurements
01:17	mean ? Units of measurement aren't something fundamental to math
01:21	. Like addition and subtraction are instead they're amounts that
01:25	people invent and agree on so that we can communicate
01:28	. In fact , we could agree to use just
01:31	about anything as unit of measurement . I could tell
01:33	you that I'm 13 hot dogs tall and my weight
01:36	is 3259 donuts . The problem with those units is
01:42	that hot dogs and donuts aren't very consistent and unless
01:45	you and I are using exactly the same hot dogs
01:48	and donuts to measure will probably come up with different
01:50	results . To get around this problem . The units
01:54	that we use in math and Science are standardized ,
01:56	which means that they match official standard amounts that can
01:59	be measured over and over again to give exactly the
02:02	same result . There's even a government agency called the
02:05	Bureau of Weights and Measures that defines and maintains those
02:09	standard amounts . Well , what do we have here
02:13	? Nothing . Just measuring stuff . Let me see
02:16	that . Mhm . What ? Just as I suspected
02:21	this isn't properly calibrated . I just had it checked
02:25	, yep , we're gonna have to take it into
02:27	the lab for adjustments . Don't let it happen again
02:31	. So is there a number I call to get
02:33	that back ? Of course , getting a bunch of
02:35	different people to all agree to use the same standards
02:38	is not always an easy task . And throughout history
02:41	, a variety of different units have come in and
02:44	out of popularity . For example , the ancient Egyptians
02:47	used units like cubits and kites which aren't so popular
02:51	today in modern times there are still a lot of
02:54	different units used in different countries . But the most
02:56	popular system of units used around the world is called
02:59	the metric system . Well it's official name is the
03:03	international system of units , or S . I .
03:05	Units for short , which stands for the french system
03:09	international . But the term metric system is still often
03:12	used to refer to this system . The metric system
03:15	is a really great idea because it makes the math
03:18	involved with certain measurements and unit conversion much easier to
03:21	do . That's because just like our base 10 number
03:24	system , most units in the metric system take advantage
03:27	of powers of 10 . The idea behind the metric
03:30	system is to start with a base unit and then
03:33	use standard prefixes to make other units that are bigger
03:36	or smaller than that base unit by powers of 10
03:39	. Here's a list of some of those prefixes to
03:42	see how they work . Let's consider a key unit
03:44	in the metric system called a meter . A meter
03:47	is a basic unit of distance or length and it
03:49	happens to be about this long as you can see
03:52	from our prefixes . The unit that's 10 times bigger
03:55	than a meter is called a deck A meter .
03:57	The unit that's 100 times bigger than a meter is
04:00	called Hector meter and the unit that's 1000 times bigger
04:03	than a meter is called a kilometer or a kilometer
04:07	. But this system also has prefixes to define units
04:10	that are smaller than a meter . The unit that's
04:12	10 times smaller or 1/10 of a meter is called
04:15	a decima eater . The unit that's 100 times smaller
04:18	or 1/100 of a meter is called a centimeter and
04:21	the unit that's 1000 times smaller or 1/1000 of a
04:24	meter is called a millimeter . Get the idea .
04:27	There are also abbreviations for each of these units .
04:30	To make writing them down a lot more convenient .
04:33	A meter is just abbreviated as M and then you
04:36	put other letters in front of that for the other
04:38	units . For example , a kilometer is abbreviated km
04:42	, while a centimeter is abbreviated cm . So why
04:46	does the metric system make working with units easier ?
04:49	Well notice the pattern we get . If we put
04:52	these units in order with the largest unit on the
04:54	left and the smallest unit on the right . Each
04:57	unit is 10 times bigger than the unit immediately on
05:00	its right , in 10 times smaller than the unit
05:02	immediately on its left . That's exactly the same pattern
05:06	that the number of places use in our decimal number
05:08	system . This diagram can give you an idea of
05:11	how the units relate to each other . For example
05:13	, one kilometer is the same as 1000 m and
05:17	one millimeter is the same as 10.1 m or 1
05:21	1/1000 of a meter . And because all these different
05:24	units of length are based on powers of 10 ,
05:26	you can convert between them just by shifting the decimal
05:29	100.1 place at a time , which is equivalent to
05:32	either multiplying or dividing by 10 depending on which direction
05:35	you shift . 2.754 kilometers is the same as 27.54
05:41	hectoliters , which is the same as 275.4 deca meters
05:46	, Which is the same as 2,754 m , which
05:51	is the same as 27,540 Decima eaters and so on
05:56	. You can convert to the next smaller metric unit
05:59	by shifting the decimal point to the right , which
06:02	is equivalent to multiplying by 10 . And you can
06:04	convert to the next bigger metric unit By shifting the
06:07	decimal point to the left , which is equivalent to
06:10	dividing by 10 . For example , 9.8 mm is
06:14	the same as 0.98 cm , which is the same
06:18	as 0.098 decimal eaters , which is the same as
06:22	0.0098 m and so on . So you can see
06:27	why the metric system is so useful . It was
06:30	designed with our number system in mind , which makes
06:32	it easy to work with . Oh . And even
06:35	though the metric system defines a lot of different units
06:37	with all these prefixes , not all are equally popular
06:40	. For example , it's not very common for people
06:43	to use deca meters . They'll usually just say 10
06:46	m or 25 m instead of saying one deck a
06:49	meter or 2.5 deca meters . In fact , there's
06:53	really just four metric units of length that are frequently
06:56	used . And they are the millimeter , the centimeter
06:59	, the meter and the kilometer . Oh . And
07:02	of course nanometers are commonly used when referring to teeny
07:05	tiny stuff like microbes or computer chips . A nanometer
07:09	is 11 billion of the meter . So that's how
07:12	metric units of distance or length work . But there's
07:16	another important quantity that uses the same powers of 10
07:19	prefix pattern . And thats mass or weight . Mass
07:23	is a measure of how much actual matter in object
07:26	contains which is closely related to its weight on earth
07:29	. In the metric system , the basic unit of
07:31	mass or weight is technically the kilogram , but we're
07:35	going to start with just the plain old graham to
07:37	see how the same prefix pattern we used for length
07:39	can be used for mass . Also for reference ,
07:43	a gram is the amount of mass equivalent to one
07:46	cc of water . A deck , a gram is
07:49	10 times bigger than a gram Hector . Graham is
07:52	100 times bigger and a kilogram is 1000 times bigger
07:56	And similarly , a Desa Graham is 10 times smaller
08:00	or 1/10 of a gram . A centre graham is
08:02	100 times smaller or 1/100 of a gram and a
08:05	milligram is 1000 times smaller or 1/1000 of a gram
08:09	. See the same pattern is used and all of
08:12	these units of mass have abbreviations . Also , the
08:15	pattern of abbreviation is similar to the metric units of
08:18	length , but instead of an M for meters ,
08:20	you use A G for grams , kg is kilograms
08:24	. Mg is milligrams and so on again because these
08:28	units of mass are based on powers of 10 ,
08:30	you can convert between them just by shifting the decimal
08:33	point , you can convert to the next smaller metric
08:35	unit by shifting the decimal point to the right ,
08:38	which is equivalent to multiplying by 10 5.24 kg is
08:43	the same as 52.4 Hector grams , which is the
08:46	same as 524 deca grams , which is the same
08:50	as 5000 240 g and so on . And you
08:54	can convert to the next bigger metric unit by shifting
08:57	the decimal point to the left , which is equivalent
08:59	to dividing by 10 16.3 mg is the same as
09:04	1.63 cinta grams which is the same as 0.163 Desa
09:09	grams which is the same as 0.163 g and so
09:14	on . But as was the case with units of
09:17	length . Many of these units of mass are not
09:20	used as often as the others . For example ,
09:22	Cinta grams aren't as popular because people will usually just
09:25	say 10 mg or 25 mg instead of one cent
09:29	a gram or 2.5 cent a grams . The units
09:33	of mass that you most commonly encounter in everyday life
09:36	are the milligram , the graham and the kilogram .
09:39	So make sure you're familiar with those . All right
09:42	. So that's the basic idea behind measurement and the
09:44	metric system Measureed helps us describe things in the world
09:47	we live in and to compare them using units .
09:50	And the units in the metric system are specially designed
09:53	to play well with our base 10 number system .
09:55	But it's important to know that the S . I
09:58	. Or metric system does use some units that are
10:00	not based on powers of 10 . Like time .
10:03	For example the basic S . I . Unit of
10:05	time is the second . But units of time that
10:08	are larger than a second are still the traditional ones
10:11	that are based on the motion of the earth and
10:13	the sun like minutes , hours , days and years
10:16	. Fortunately units of time that are smaller than a
10:19	second do use the base 10 prefixes such as milliseconds
10:23	and nanoseconds . I wish I had more time to
10:26	talk about time in this video and all the non
10:29	metric units that are still commonly used today , like
10:32	feet or pounds . But I'm afraid those will have
10:34	to wait for future videos . There aren't too many
10:36	exercises for this lesson . But if measurement and the
10:39	metric system , our new topics for you , you
10:41	might want to give them a try as always .
10:43	Thanks for watching mathematics and I'll see you next time
10:46	. Learn more at Math Antics dot com .

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