Convert Between Systems

The Properties of Real Numbers

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Make unit conversions in the U.S. system

Use mixed units of measurement in the U.S. system

Make unit conversions in the metric system

Use mixed units of measurement in the metric system

Convert between the U.S. and the metric systems of measurement

Convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures

There are two systems of measurement commonly used around the world. Most countries use the metric system.

The United States uses a different system of measurement, usually called the U.S. system.

We will look at the U.S. system first.

In the metric system, units are related by powers of 10.

The root words of their names reflect this relation.

For example, the basic unit for measuring length is a meter. One kilometer is 1000

meters; the prefix kilo- means thousand.

One centimeter is 1/100 of a meter, because the prefix centi- means one one-hundredth (just like one cent is /100 of one dollar).