Basic Mathematics for College Students

Chapter 5 Summary and Review 489

The massof an object is a measure of the
amount of material in the object.

Common metric units of mass are the
kilogram, hectogram, dekagram, decigram,
centigram and milligram.Abbreviations are
often used when writing these units. See the
table on page 461.

1 kg 1,000 g

1 hg 100 g

1 dag10 g 1 g1,000 mg

 1 g100 cg

 1 g 10 dg

Converting from one metric unit to another can
be done using unit conversion factors ora
conversion chart.

In a conversion chart, the units are listed from
largest to smallest, reading left to right. We
count the placesand note the directionas we
move from the original units to the conversion
units.

Convert 820 grams to kilograms.

To use a conversion chart, locate the original units of grams and move

to the conversion units of kilograms.

To go from grams to kilograms,

we must move 3 places to the left.

If we write 820 grams as 820.0 grams, we can convert to kilograms by

moving the decimal point 3 places to the left.

820.0 grams = 0.820 0 kilograms = 0.82 kilograms

The unit conversion factor method gives the same result:

Thus, 820 grams 0.82 kilograms.

0.82 kg



820

1,000

kg

820 g

820 g

1



1 kg

1,000 g





smallest

kg hg dag g dg cg mg unit

largest

unit

Common metric units of capacity are the
kiloliter, hectoliter, dekaliter, deciliter,
centiliterand milliliter.Abbreviations are often
used when writing these units. See the table on
page 464.

1 kL 1,000 L

1 hL 100 L

1 daL10 L 1 L1,000 mL

 1 L100 cL

 1 L 10 dL

Converting from one metric unit to another can
be done using unit conversion factors or a
conversion chart.

Convert 0.7 kiloliters to milliliters.

To use a conversion chart, locate the original units of kiloliters and

move to the conversion units of milliliters.

To go from kiloliters to milliliters,

we must move 6 places to the right.

We can convert to milliliters by moving the decimal point 6 places to

the right.

0.7 kiloliters = 0 700000. milliliters = 700,000 milliliters



kL hL daL L dL cL mL