Units of Conversion: Linear Measure

Basic to the understanding of unit conversion is the understanding equivalence, the understanding of the multiplicative identity of 1, and how the two are related. For a review of these concepts, click on Review.

If you have forgotten how to manipulate fractions, visit Fractions for Adults on SOSMath for an in-depth review.

Review the following table (Webster's New World Dictionary, Second Edition, Simon and Schuster, 1982) of Standard Units of Conversion to see if you can create fractions that have a value of 1. You can click to examples following each table.

LinearMeasure

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Example 4: Convert 100 meters to miles.

Solution.

Method 1: Convert meters to feet to miles in one step.

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Method 2: Convert meters to decameters to hectometers to kilometers to miles.

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This answer does not match the answer we derived in Method 1 because of the way we rounded. Remember that both of the answers are approximations because of the rounding.

If you would like to practice some problems click on Problems.

If you would like to go back to the table of contents, click on Main Menu.

[Units of Conversion]

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Author: Nancy Marcus
Fri Aug 2 12:03:12 MDT 1996

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