What is it, you may ask?
Well, for more complicated conversions, you would have to convert more than once to get to your designated unit. Convert it to the 10^0 prefix which are grams, meters, seconds, and Litres. To do this, you would have to have a "travel route":
Eg. Converting 50km into cm:
km -> m -> cm
You would have to convert kilometers to meters first, then convert that to centimeters.
50km x 1000m/1km x 100cm/m = 5000000cm
NOTE: Always have the unit you want to cancel on opposite sides of the fraction!! Also, leave the answer in scientific notation if the answer is either too large or too small. (eg. 5000000cm = 5.0 x 10^6cm)
Eg. Convert mg to dg:
We would have to first convert mg to grams, then from grams to decigrams.
Derived Quantity Conversions
- it is when there is more than one SI base unit in a single quantity
- convert to the unit on the numerator first then convert the denominator
Eg. 10km/h to cm/s:
10km/h x 1000m/km x 100cm/m x 1h/3600s
Then you can cancel all the units you have repeated until you are left with cm/s
- if the unit is squared or cubed, you will have to multiply the conversion factor as many times as it is powered
Eg. 10cm³ to m³
10cm³ x 1m/100cm x 1m/100cm x 1m/100cm
Then you can cancel out all the "cm" units since it corresponds to the power, and the product of the "m" unit would be cubed.
That is all there is to converting with more than one step!! Make sure to memorize your SI prefixes and conversion factor chart to help you with your conversions!
P.S: We will have a quiz next week about conversions and scientific notations, so be sure to memorize your chart!
I hope that all this math isn't hurting your head! :P Goodluck!
(Today's entry by Grace Zhao)
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