Basics of the metric system and the common prefixes

This is a simple lesson explaining the common prefixes of the metric system units and how they work. The units are organized in a table, and we learn what each prefix actually means:

kilo (thousand)
hecto (hundred)
deka (ten)
basic unit
deci (tenth)
centi (hundredth)
milli (thousandth)

These same prefixes are used whether you have meters, grams, liters, watts, bytes, or whatever. Each unit (such as millimeter, centimeter, decimeter, meter, etc.) differs from the neighboring ones by a factor of ten.

We do simple conversions between measuring units considering what the prefix actually means. For example, since "centi" means hundredth, then 8 cm means 8 hundredths of a meter, or 0.08 m.

I then show a handy table that is similar to place value table or chart, which we can use to easily convert units. You simply write the digits of the quantity in the right places, and then you read the quantity in different places to convert it. It makes measuring unit conversions just really easy!

This lesson is intended for 5th or 6th grade math.

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