Measurement Powers of Ten Worksheets

How are Measurements Related to the Powers of Ten? Without measuring units, numbers have no real meaning, there are just a random combination of digits. These units give a number a meaning and help us understand exactly what a number is associated with. One thing that confuses many students are the conversion of between these units. An easy way to go about it is by using a metric system based on the powers of ten. Before you can start working on it, you need to understand how measurement are related to the powers of ten such as 10" are 101, 102, 103, 104, so on and so forth. When composing units with powers of ten, it resonates to multiplication, and when we are decomposing units with powers of ten, we are talking about division. It makes unit conversions simple, easy, and very convenient. To convert a unit, you just have to multiply with ‘powers of ten.’ Most of these calculations can also be done mentally. This is how measurements are related to the powers of ten.

103 (thousands) 102 (hundreds) 101 (tens) 100 (ones)
Meters

decimeters

centimeters millimeters
Liters deciliters

centiliters

milliliters

As Corny as It Gets...

The next time you need a corny math joke, try this one:
Question:
why did the metric chicken cross the busy highway?
Answer:
to see how many meters wide it was!