Systems of Measurement

imperial

metric

metric

metric

metric

metric

metric

The Imperial System

• Developed over hundreds of years, the imperial system tried to use every day objects for units

• 1 inch = your thumb

• 1 foot = your foot

• On so on….

• But this did cause some problems…

1 pound = a good sized throwing stone…

1 cup = the amount of water you can hold in your cupped hands.

And what makes it even more challenging, is that they broke everything into fractions, usually of 12s and 16s….

Metric System

• The mathematics is much simpler than the imperial system (all factors of 10)

• The problem, is that some of the measures are hard to relate to (what is a decameter?...a milligram?....)

So, we’ll start with the imperial system….

• We are going to begin with the mechanics of adding and subtracting imperial fractions….

To add or subtract fractions, we must have a CD!

Basic Imperial Units

• Inch / Foot (length)

• Gallon (volume)

• Pound (weight)

• Fahrenheit (temperature)