Workforce Development

BC/BS

Level 4 Notes

Note: The presentation of Unit Conversions is less than complete. They start with a "general feel" approach (which is smaller , which is larger, divide or multiply). The move to the "cancellation" approach is not documents, and it is not explained, and it has a funny partial problem stuck in the middle of page 31

which does not make sense.

p 40.
part of the table seems to be missing, namely d=deci (1/10 or 0.1) and c=centi (1/100 or 0.01).
Although there is a one letter abbreviation for most of the prefixes, they use the two letter abbreviation, da, for "deca" which is also given with the spelling "deka", and all of this is done without explanation.
The metric bar has "mlg" stuck in the middle of it without an explanation. They are trying to say the the "unit" measure is any one of "m" for meters, "l" for liters, or "g" for grams.
p. 44
Note that they want students to memorize the metric bar.
As far as using the metric system, let us consider the following table:
Prefix:kilo hecto deca  deci centi milli
Picture of
relative size:
Size compared
to the unit
1,000 100 101 1/10
or
0.1
1/100
or
0.01
1/1000
or
0.001
length:kilometer hectometer decametermeter decimeter centimeter millimeter
volume:kiloliter hectoliter decaliterliter deciliter centiliter milliliter
mass:kilogram hectogram decagramgram decigram centigram milligram

©Roger M. Palay
Saline, MI 48176
September, 1999