Morrow High school

A Clayton County Public School

4930 Steele Rd, Ellenwood, Georgia 30294 Phone: (770) 473-3241 Fax: (770) 473-3264

Name: _______ ___________Block: ____________Date: __________

Metric Conversions Worksheet-1

Part-1
T tera- 1 000 000 000 000 1012
G giga- 1 000 000 000 109
M mega- 1 000 000 106
k kilo- 1 000 103 These are the metric units.
h hecto- 100 102 The letter in the first column
D deka 10 101 is used as the prefix before
the unit. Some common
NO PREFIX ( UNIT) 1 100 types of units are: grams
(g), meters (m), liters (L),
d deci 0.1 10-1 joules (J), seconds (s),
c centi- 0.01 10-2 and bytes (B).
m milli- 0.001 10-3
μ micro- 0.000001 10
n nano- 0.000000001 10-9

When working in the metric system it is helpful to use a “metric map.” This metric map will enable
you to successfully convert your units.

EXAMPLES
 G M k m μ n

Giga Mega kilo “None” milli micro nano

109 106 103 100 10-3 10-6 10-9

102 101 10-1 10-2

hecto deca deci centi
h da d c

When converting from one metric prefix to another, you move the decimal place the same
direction as the conversion moves along the above decimal line. You move the decimal
place the same number of places as the difference between the two indices.

Example 1
Convert 1200000 mg into kg.

This conversion is to the left of the decimal line, from 10-3 to 103, representing a change of
106 or 6 decimal place moves to the left.

∴ 1200000 mg = 1.2 kg
 From To Differenc Move decimal
e in left or right?
prefix unit prefix unit zeros/
decimal
places/step
s

km kilo Meters m No prefix Meters 3 Right

Mg mega gram Gg giga grams 3 left

?
mL milli litres L litres 3 left

kJ kilo joules mJ milli joules 6 right

μs micro seconds ms milli seconds 3 left

B ? bytes kB kilo bytes 3 left

cm centi meters mm milli meters 1 right

cL centi litres μL micro litres 4 right

PROBLEMS

1. Convert the following to grams (g):

Differenc Move to
Before e in After
left or
converting zeros/ converting
decimal right?
places/steps
3 right 1000g
1.0 kg

3 right 2500g
2.5 kg

3 right 45.0g
0.045 kg

3 left 0.1g
100 mg

3 left 2.4g
2400 mg
2. Convert the following to meters (m):

Difference Move to
Before in zeros/ After
decimal left or
converting converting
places/steps right?
3 left 0.004m
4 mm

3 right 15600.m
15.6 km

6 right 5000.m
0.005 Mm

6 left 1.m
1,000,000 μm

3 left 2.4m
2400 mm

3. Convert the following to kiloliters (kL):

Difference Move to
Before in zeros/ After
decimal left or
converting converting
places/steps right?
3 left 1.6kl
1600 L

5 left 0.0205kl
2050 cL

6 left 0.005kl
5000 mL

1 left
0.15kl
1.5 hL

9 left 0.000000000003kL
0.003 µL
Part - II
1. Convert the following to km:

1600.0 m = 1.6km 2050 cm = 0.0205km 1.033 Mm = 1033km

245 565 mm = 0.245565km 20099 m = 20.099km 499 m = 0.499km

2. Convert the following:

10.034 mJ = __1.0034______ cJ 36.45 cL =

364500_____
___ μL

0.05 cm = _0.5 _______mm 1024 B =_1.024____

___kB

0.0325 kJ = ____3250____ cJ 1202.5 mL =

1.2025______
__L

0.42101 Gg = _421.01_______Mg 25.5 km =

_25500_____
__ m

0.12907 cm = __1.2907______mm 756 900 μs =_756.9_____

__ms

5600.4 Ms = _5.6004_______Gs 268 000 cm =_2.68______

_km

Part - III
Convert the following:

0.0075 Gm = _7500_______ km 0.00091 TL = ____910____ ML

0.00046 ks = __46______ cs 244475.3 μs = _0.002444753

_______hs

4096 MB = _4.096_______ GB 210 hm = ___= 0.021_____

 cm

0.0002 μg = _0.0000002_______mg 448.5 cg = __4.485______g

0.00034 μL = _0.0000000034_______cL 2103.55 s =

_2.10355_______ks

11120.33 ng = _0.001112033_______cg 0.0000012 GL =

_120000_______ cL

Word Problems
1. The distance from your home to the airport is 0.0000075 Gm. How far is this in km?

0.0000075 Gm = __7.5 ______ km

2. There are 10 computers in the computer lab that each have 20 GB hard drives. How many bytes
(B) of disk space do we have in the computer lab in total.

10 × 20 GB = 200 GB
200 GB = _200 000 000 000_______B

3. A challenge: convert 100125368477004 ng to

Teragrams. 100125368477004 ng = _=
0.000000100125368477004_______Tg.