CONVERTING

Conver ting Units

UNITS

T
P OR
PASS

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 This book shows how to write the same value using smaller or larger units of measurement.

Many ancient civilisations measured lengths/distances by relating them to certain body parts.

Investigate these terms and write what the original measurement referred to.
Remen (Ancient Egyptian) Hand (Ancient Egyptian)

Cubit (Ancient Egyptian) Cabda (Arabic)

Pollex (Roman) Swung sazhen (Russian)

Paramaanus (Hindu) Span (English)

Kis arasz (Hungarian) Fathom (English)

Q Describe the total mass of the boxes being carried below in as many different ways as you can.

Work through the book for a great way to do this

Converting Units H 17 1
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 How does it work? Converting Units

Prefixes

Prefixes let us write down very small or very large numbers quickly and easily.

They’re used for S.I. units — a common international system of units developed so all nations and areas
of science/mathematics could communicate results the same way.

Each prefix tells us what to multiply the measured values by if writing them in the base units used.

The base units of measurement we will be using in this book are

• metre (m) - Length

• kilogram (kg) - Mass
• second (s) - Time
• litre (L) - Capacity
• bytes (B) - Digital information

This chart shows some commonly used prefixes and the multiplying power of 10 they represent

2 H 17 Converting Units
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 How does it work? Converting Units

Prefixes

These examples show how prefixes can simplify measurement statements.

Re-write these measurements using single digits only

(i) 3 000 000 litres

3 000 000 L = 3 # 1 000 000 litres Multiplier used on base unit

= 3 megalitres Single digit prefix form

= 3 ML Single digit symbol form

(ii) 7 # 1 grams
103
7 # 1 3 = 7 milligrams Single digit prefix form
10
= 7 mg Single digit symbol form

(iii) 0.005 metres

0.005 m = 5 # 1000 metres

= 5# 1 metres Multiplier used on base unit

1000
Remember: = 5 millimetres Single digit prefix form
#
1 = ' 1000
1000
= 5 mm Single digit symbol form

(iv) 8 000 000 000 bytes

8 000 000 000 bytes = 8 # 1 000 000 000 bytes

= 8 # 109 bytes Multiplier used on base unit

= 8 gigabytes Single digit prefix form

= 8 GB Single digit symbol form

Converting Units H 17 3
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 How does it work? Your Turn Converting Units

Prefixes
1 Write the prefix used to represent each of these multiplications:

a # 1000 b # 1 000 000

c #
1 d #
1
100 1 000 000

e #
1 f # 10
9
1000

2 Use prefixes to describe each of these measurements in single-digit prefix form.

a 6 km b 9 ms

Six kilometres
c 5 Gb d 7 ML

e 1 000 000 b f 9 000 g

g 200 m h 80 L

i 0.03 m j 0.004 g

k 0.006 L l 0.000 002 s

m 1  L n 4 g
1000 10

o 90  m p 200 s
10 000 1000

4 H 17 Converting Units
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How does it work? Your Turn Converting Units

Prefixes
3 Solve the puzzle below to find the two French words that the abbreviation S.I. stands for.

R A
N
2 millilitres 5 000 000

È bytes

O E
1 micro- 5 gigabytes
seconds

5000 bytes 2000  litres

S M
L
3000 metres 0.001  
seconds

N T
3 # 109 m

E
4 micrograms 4 # 1012 bytes

T E
3 ' 100 metres

1 grams
3 nanometres 4#
1000

I I
N A
4 # 1000 grams 200 L

T Y S
0.003 metres 200 # 1 litres
100

4 decigrams 2# 1 L
2 # 10 litres
6
1000000

* P R E FI
ES X
X

ES
* PREFI

* PRE F I

./20....
.
..../...
ES

ES
X

2 μL 4 dg 3 km 2 ML 5 GB 1 ms 4 mg X

* P RE F I

4 kg 3 mm 5 TB 3 cm 2 mL 4 μg 5 MB 3 nm 2 hL 5 kB 1 μs 2 L 3 Gm 2 kL

Converting Units H 17 5
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 Where does it work? Converting Units

Changing between units of mass

The mass of an object tells us how heavy it is.

The base measurement for mass is kilograms (kg).
Follow the arrows on this chart to change (convert) between commonly used units of mass.
Larger units
' 1000 ' 1000 ' 1000 '

milligrams grams kilograms tonnes

mg g kg t

1 tonne
=
# # 1000 # 1000 # 1000
1000 kg

Smaller units
Remember like this: For sMaller units, you Multiply and for bIgger units, you dIvide.

Use the conversion chart to convert these mass measurements

(i) 2 kg into tonnes

' 1000 2 kg ' 1000 = 2.0 kg ' 1000

kg t = . 2 . 0 tonnes Move the decimal point 3 spaces left

= 0.002 t Same mass in larger units

(ii) 5.43 g into milligrams

t kg 5.43 kg # 1000 = 5 . 4 3 . # 1000 milligrams Move the decimal point 3 spaces right
= 5430 mg Same mass in smaller units
# 1000

Sometimes you need to take two or more steps with the conversion
(iii) 8920 g into tonnes
8920 g ' 1000 ' 1000 = 8920.0 ' 1 000 000 t
' 1000 ' 1000
= . 8920.0 t Move the decimal point 6 spaces left

g kg t = 0.00892 tonnes Same mass in larger units

6 H 17 Converting Units
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Where does it work? Your Turn Converting Units

Changing between units of mass

1 Convert the mass measurements below into the bracketed units.

a 1000 g [kilograms] b 3 mg [grams]

c 2.5 kg [grams] d 150 kg [tonnes]

e 0.3 g [milligrams] f 70 t [kilograms]

2 Convert the mass measurements below into units given in square brackets.

a 0.1 g [kilograms] b 3000 mg [kilograms]

c 6 t [grams] d 87 500 g [tonnes]

e 0.004 kg [milligrams] f 0.00004 t [grams]

Combo time!

3 Draw lines connecting the matching mass measurements below.

4000 g 4 g
A
40 kg 400 kilograms
2
0.400 t 3 4 kg
1
400 g V 6 0.4 kg
S M
0.40 mg 40 mg

4000 t 4 0.04 Mg
E S
0.004 kg 4 ' 107 kg
7
40 000 mg I 5 grams
40 

0.04 g 4 # 109 grams

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Converting Units H 17 7
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 Where does it work? Converting Units

Changing between units of length

The original metre lengths were determined using two methods:

• The length of string on a pendulum that had a period of exactly 1 second.
• 1 # the length of the meridian around the Earth’s equator.
10 000 000

These days, a special type of light is used to determine a metre very precisely.
It is the base measurement for distance.

' 10 ' 100 ' 1000 '

Smaller units millimetres centimetres metres kilometres Larger units

mm cm m km

# # 10 # 100 # 1000

Use the conversion chart to convert these length measurements

(i) 3.5 metres into centimetres

3.5 m # 100 = 3 . 5 0 . cm Choose the correct multiplier
cm m
= 350 cm Same distance in smaller units

# 100

(ii) 8 mm into cm

8 mm ' 10 = 8.0 ' 10 cm Write whole number in decimal form
' 10
= . 8 . 0 cm
mm cm = 0.8 cm Put zero in front of decimal point

Be careful to use the correct multipliers for conversions needing two or more steps.

(iii) 0.28 kilometres into centimetres

0.28 km # 1000 # 100 = 0.28 # 100 000 cm
cm m km = 0 . 2 8 0 0 0 . cm Move the decimal point 5 spaces right

= 28 000 cm Same distance in smaller units

# 100 # 1000

8 H 17 Converting Units
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Where does it work? Your Turn Converting Units
G I NG B
HAN ETW
E

* C
Changing between units of length

EN
..../...../20....
H
GT NI
T S O F LE N

U
1 Convert the length measurements below into the units given in square brackets.

a 20 cm [millimetres] b 9 m [centimetres]

c 600 cm [metres] d 4 km [metres]

e 7000 m [kilometres] f 150 mm [centimetres]

2 Convert the length measurements below into the bracketed units.

a 0.01 m [centimetres] b 50 cm [metres]

c 8 mm [centimetres] d 90 m [kilometres]

e 0.0045 km [metres] f 0.006 hm [millimetres]

3 Change the length measurements into the units in square brackets.

a 8000 mm [metres] b 4200 cm [kilometres]

c 7.3 km [millimetres] d 0.75 m [centimetres]

e 0.19 m [millimetres] f 870 mm [centimetres]

4 Convert these trickier length measurements into the units shown in square brackets.

a 0.015 km [cm] b 0.091 m [mm]

c 0.00034 km [mm] d 431 mm [km]

e ^7.8 ' 105h km [mm] f ^3 # 106h cm [km]

Converting Units H 17 9
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 Where does it work? Converting Units

Area, volume and capacity conversions

Area
' 100 ' 10 000 ' 1 000 000

square square square square

millimetres centimetres metres kilometres 1 ha = 10 000 m2
mm2 cm2 m2 km2

You can also do area

# 100 # 10 000 # 1 000 000 conversions like this:
1 m = 1000 mm
^1 mh2 = ^1000 mmh2
Volume 1 m2 = 1 000 000 mm2

' 1000 ' 1 000 000 '

cubic cubic cubic

millimetres centimetres metres
mm3 cm3 m3

# # 1000 # 1 000 000

1000 cm3 holds 1 litre of liquid

Capacity
(Volume for liquid)

' 1000 ' 1000 ' 1000 '

microlitre millilitres litres kilolitres megalitres

μL mL L kL ML

# 1000

# # 1000 # 1000 # 1000

10 H 17 Converting Units
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Where does it work? Converting Units

Area, volume and capacity conversions

Use the area, volume and capacity charts to convert these measurements

For area and volume conversions, be careful with changing multipliers.

(i) 95 000 square metres into hectares

' 10 000
95 000 m2 ' 10 000 = 9.5 hectares Same area in larger units
m 2
ha

(ii) 3 metres cubed into millimetres cubed

mm3 cm3 m3

3 m3 # 1 000 000 # 1000 = 3 # 1 000 000 000 mm3

# 1000 # 1 000 000
= 3 000 000 000 mm3 Same volume in smaller units

(iii) 5 kilolitres into millilitres

mL L kL
5 kL # 1000 # 1000 = 5 # 1 000 000 mL Combine the multipliers

# 1000 # 1000 = 5 000 000 mL Same capacity in smaller units

To find how much liquid a container can hold, volume measurements can be converted to capacity units.

Remember: Volume to Capacity

1 mm3 = 1 μL
1 cm3 = 1 mL
1000 cm3 = 1 L
1 m3 = 1 kL

(iv) The volume of a cardboard milk container is 2500 cm3 . How many litres of milk
does the carton hold?
1000 cm3 = 1 litre
` 2500 cm3 ' 1000 cm3 = 2.5

` 2500 cm3 milk carton can hold 2.5 litres of milk

Converting Units H 17 11
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 Where does it work? Your Turn Converting Units
* AREA, V
NS OL
I O . .../....
Area, volume and capacity conversions ./20.

UM
...

RS

E A
VE
N ND
1 Convert the area measurements below into the units shown in C A P A C I TY C O
square brackets.

a 20 000 cm2 6m2 @ b 5 km2 6m2 @

c 3 ha 6m2 @ d 8.5 cm2 6mm2 @

e 2.7 m2 6cm2 @ f 50 km2 6ha @

g 9.1 mm2 6cm2 @ h 42 cm2 6m2 @

2 Convert the volume measurements below into units shown in square brackets.

a 20 000 mm3 6cm3 @ b 25 m3 6cm3 @

c 455 cm3 6mm3 @ d 10.4 cm3 6m3 @

3 Convert the capacity measurements below into the units written in square brackets.

a 4000 kL 6ML @ b 500 mL 6L @

c 290 mL 6 μL @ d 0.032 kL 6L @

e 9.7 L 6kL @ f 167 ML 6kL @

4 Change these measurements into the units written in square brackets.

a 7L 6cm3 @ b 0.375 L 6cm3 @

c 1200 cm3 6L @ d 53 mm3 6 μL @

e 56.8 cm3 6L @ f 234 m3 6kL @

12 H 17 Converting Units
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Where does it work? Your Turn Converting Units

Area, volume and capacity conversions

5 Use two steps to convert these mixed measurements into the bracketed units.

a 280 000 mL 6kL @ b 7.49 m2 6mm2 @

c 58 000 mm3 6m3 @ d 10 L 6m3 @

e 750 cm3 6mL @ f 0.000 03 ha 6m2 @

6 Use three steps to convert these mixed measurements into the units given in square brackets.

a 0.000 000 6 km2 6m2 @ b 790 000 mL 6ML @

c 0.0012 t 6mg @ d 47 380 000 mm2 6ha @

7 During a long walk, a person drank 5 full 600 mL bottles of water.

How many cm3 of water is this equal to?

8 The sales brochure for a new refrigerator said that it has a capacity of 560 L.

a What volume of water is this equal to in cm3 ?

b The volume of a rectangular refrigerator is found by calculating width # depth # height. If

the refrigerator on sale is 80 cm wide, 1.35 m high and 500 mm deep, is the sales brochure
accurate? Explain your answer. (hint: change all refrigerator dimensions to cm first)

Converting Units H 17 13
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 Where does it work? Your Turn Converting Units

Area, volume and capacity conversions

9 To earn this awesome stamp, complete the puzzle below to reveal something that converts from
one form to another in nature.

• Shade all the areas containing values equal to 1 cm yellow

• Shade all the areas containing values equal to 1 cm2 black
• Shade all the areas containing values equal to 1 cm3 blue

10 000 mm3 10 mL
0.0001 km 100 mm3

1L
0.0

0.01 km
00

100 mm2
00

0.01 ha
0.0

1k
00

1c

1 mL
L
m
00

0.000 01 ML 0.0001 L
#1
00

cm
01
ML

0.000 001 dm2

0.000 01 km 1 ' 1000 L

100 000 μm
1000 mm3

0.000 01 ha 1000 mm3

1000μL
0.00

0.1 m
01 m

10 # 10 mm2
0.01
2

1000 mm
m

0.0001 mm2
0.001 L
0.000 001 m3

10 # 100 mm3
10 000 m2
10 000 cm3
..
20..
..../
..../.

14 H 17 Converting Units
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 Where does it work? Converting Units

Changing between units of time

Larger units
' 60 ' 60 ' 24 '7

weeks

milliseconds Seconds Minutes Hours Days

s min h 2 4
ms

# 1000 # 60 # 60 # 24

Smaller units

Other time conversions include:

'7 '2 ' 12

days weeks fortnight months year

#7 #2 # 12

' 52 ' 10 ' 10

weeks years decades centuries

# 52 # 10 # 10

Use the conversion chart to convert these time measurements.

(i) 3 decades into years

' 10 3 decades = 3 # 10 years Choose the correct multiplier

= 30 years Same time in smaller units

years decades

# 10

Be careful with changing multipliers for time conversions needing two or more steps

(ii) 72 000 milliseconds into minutes

' 1000 ' 60

72 000 ' 1000 ' 60 = 72 ' 60 min Work left to right

ms s min = 1.2 min Same time in minutes

Converting Units H 17 15
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 Where does it work? Your Turn Converting Units
NGI.N G
. B E TW
HA 0..
2
..../

* C
.
/

EE U
Changing between units of time .
...

N
E M NI
1 Convert these time measurements into the units given in square brackets. TS OF T I

a 40 min 6seconds @ b 2 days 6hours @

c 600 s 6minutes @ d 7000 ms 6seconds @

e 54 hours 6minutes @ f 1200 hours 6days @

g 2 years 6 weeks @ h 12 decades 6centuries @

2 Convert these time measurements into the units given in square brackets.

a 0.12 s 6milliseconds @ b 0.4 h 6minutes @

c 400 ms 6seconds @ d 18 hours 6days @

e 0.03 hours 6minutes @ f 42 sec 6minutes @

g 1.5 fortnights 6 weeks @ h 0.74 years 6months @

3 Change these time measurements into the bracketed units.

a 0.02 hours 6seconds @ b 4.2 min 6milliseconds @

c 2 days 6minutes @ d 240 ms 6minutes @

e 72 000 min 6days @ f 3192 hours 6 weeks @

4 Convert these prefixed time measurements into the units shown in square brackets.

a 3500 ms 6seconds @ b 18 ms 6minutes @

c 4 mins 6milliseconds @ d 900 000 ms 6hours @

e 48 s 6milliseconds @ f ^54 # 104h min 6hours @

1000

16 H 17 Converting Units
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 What else can you do? Converting Units

Mixed units problems

Changing all measurements to the same units allows calculations to be much simpler.

Eg: What is the total mass of the marked boxes below?

First, change all the measurements into the same units. Let’s use kg!

• Box 1: 300 g = 300 ' 1000 kg = 0.3 kg 0.3 kg

• Box 2: 3.0 kg 3.0 kg

• Box 3: 0.7 kg 0.7 kg

• Box 4: 250 g = 250 ' 1000 kg = 0.25 kg 0.25 kg

Then add together the values in the same units, so total mass is: 4.25 kg

We could have changed them all into grams or any other unit of mass instead if needed.

Here is another example which uses length conversions.

Four sailors measured how far their boat was from the coast when the anchor was set.

0.175 km, 175 m, 1750 cm, 175 000 mm

If only one of the measurements was incorrect, which one was it?

: 0.175 km # 1000 = 175 m

: 175 m
change to same units to compare
: 1750 cm ' 100 = 17.5 m

: 175 000 mm ' 1000 = 175 m

` the measurement of 1750 cm was the incorrect one

Converting Units H 17 17
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 What else can you do? Your Turn Converting Units
M IXE D U N I
*
Mixed units problems

T
P R O B LE M S

PR O B L E M S
1 The distance between two cities on Earth are one million, one hundred and twelve ..../....
./20..
thousand, five hundred metres apart. How far apart are the two points in km? ..

T
I *
MIXED UN

2 Describe the total mass of the boxes being carried below in as many different ways as you can.

3 To earn a bronze certificate in the Fathomed Friends Diving Club, a diver must have completed a
total of 5 hours diving.

Our diver below has so far completed dives of 45 minutes, 3600 seconds and 1 th of a day.
8
How much longer does the diver have to dive for to earn a bronze certificate?

18 H 17 Converting Units
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What else can you do? Your Turn Converting Units

Mixed units problems

4 To win a holiday, families from one city took part in a water recycling competition.
Which of the following top performing families won the holiday by recycling the most water?

The Hakim family: 2500 L

The Okeke family: 0.0026 ML
The Evans Family: 2 550 000 cm3
The Akhtar family: 2 300 000 mL

5 Earn yourself an awesome passport stamp with this one!

Plants are important for helping keep greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in check.
In each year approximately:
10 saplings absorb 10 kg,
10 hectares of pine forest absorb 100 tonnes, and
10 hectares of preserved forest absorb 1000 tonnes of harmful gases,
How many total kilotonnes of greenhouse gasses are absorbed in one year by 1 000 000 saplings,
200 hectares of pine forest and 1000 hectares of preserved forest?

0....
..../...../2

Converting Units H 17 19
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 What else can you do? Converting Units

Conversion applications: Resistor values

Charts are often used to help people quickly calculate values or conversions.

Resistor charts help technicians read the value of a resistor, which is important to ensure that the
electronics operates properly.
Different coloured bands show the values and multiplier used to tell the resistance of each component.
The unit for resistance is Ohm’s (Ω)

Resistor band colour chart

1st Digit 2nd Digit Multiplier

Black 0 0 1
Brown 1 1 10
Red 2 2 100
Orange 3 3 1000
Resistor Yellow 10 000
4 4
colour codes:
Green 5 5 100 000
Blue 6 6 1000 000
Violet 7 7
Grey 8 8
White 9 9

2 5 # 1000

The value of this resistor is 25 000 ohms, or using prefixes is 25 kΩ (for kilo-ohms)

Use the resistor chart to write the value of this resistor in mega-ohms.

The value of this resistor is

84 # 1000 000 ohms = 84 000 000 ohms

8 4 # 1000 000
= 84 MΩ Mega-ohms

20 H 17 Converting Units
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What else can you do? Your Turn Converting Units

L U ES *
VA C
Conversion applications: Resistor values

RE S I S T O R

ON
VERSION
1 Use the resistor chart to write the value of these resistors.
0....
..../...../2
AP

:
a b ON P LI
CA T I

Resistor value = Ohms Resistor value = Ohms

c d

Resistor value = Ohms Resistor value = Ohms

2 Use the resistor chart to write the value of these resistors using the bracketed prefixes.

a [kilo-ohms] b [mega-ohms]

Resistor value = Ω Resistor value = Ω

= kΩ = MΩ

c [mega-ohms] d [kilo-ohms]

Resistor value = Ω Resistor value = Ω

= MΩ = kΩ

Converting Units H 17 21
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 What else can you do? Your Turn Converting Units

Reflection Time

Reflecting on the work covered within this booklet:

• What useful skills have you gained by learning how to convert between different units?

• Write about one or two ways you think you could apply converting units to a real life situation.

• If you discovered or learnt about any shortcuts to help with converting units or some other
cool facts/conversions, jot them down here:

22 H 17 Converting Units
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 Cheat Sheet Converting Units

Here is what you need to remember from this topic on Converting Units

Multiplying and dividing by powers of ten

Move the decimal point depending on the number of zeros

# = move decimal point to the right , ' = move decimal point to the left

Prefixes
Prefixes let us write down very small or very large numbers quickly and easily.
Each prefix tells us what to multiply the measured value by if we wanted to write it in the base units used.

Changing between units of mass

' 1000 ' 1000 ' 1000 '

milligrams grams kilograms tonnes

mg g kg t

# # 1000 # 1000 # 1000

Converting Units H 17 23
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 Cheat Sheet Converting Units

Changing between units of length

' 10 ' 100 ' 1000 '

Smaller units millimetres centimetres metres kilometres Larger units

mm cm m km

# # 10 # 100 # 1000

Area, volume and capacity conversions

' 100 ' 10 000 ' 1000 000

square square square square

Area millimetres centimetres metres kilometres
mm2 cm2 m2 km2

# 100 # 10 000 # 1 000 000

' 1000 ' 1 000 000 '

cubic cubic cubic

millimetres centimetres metres
Volume mm3 cm3 m3

# # 1000 # 1 000 000

' 1000 ' 1000 ' 1000 '

microlitre millilitres litres kilolitres megalitres

Capacity μL mL L kL ML

# # 1000 # 1000 # 1000

Changing between units of time

' 60 ' 60 ' 24 '7

weeks
milliseconds Seconds Minutes Hours Days
ms s min h 2 4

# 1000 # 60 # 60 # 24

24 H 17 Converting Units
SERIES TOPIC Mathletics Passport © 3P Learning
 AREA, V
S * OL
ON ... U
./...../
20....
RSI

ME A
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C A P A C I TY C O N

L U ES *
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RE S I S T O R

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VERSION
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:
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. B E TW
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MIXED UN