Katherine P. answered • 06/27/13
Positive, Effective, and Experienced Math Tutor
The metric system is based on tens. This makes it easy to convert between various units once you know what the prefix means (the part before -meter).
kilometer (km) = 1000 meters
centimeter (cm) = 0.01 meters (or 100 cm = 1 meter)
millimeter (mm) = 0.001 meters (or 1,000 cm = 1 meter)
The following is a list of prefixes from largest to smallest:
Kilo, Hecto, Deka, X, Deci, Centi, Milli
The X stands for the base unit (in this case meters). Each shifts by a factor of 10.
0.001 km = 0.01 hm = 0.1 dam = 1 m = 10 dm = 100 cm = 1000 mm
You can memorize the order by remembering: "King Henry Died - Drinking Chocolate Milk."
If you have a specific problem, I'd be happy to provide an example.
