How many centimeters are in 27.3 decameters?

Question

I tend to have trouble with these. Is there an easy way to figure these type of questions out?

Answer 1

I have another approach to offer. It doesn't involve Scientific Notation.  If you are young & do not understand Scientific Notation (especially negative exponents), here's another way to convert measurements in the Metric System.

 

No matter if you are measuring mass, length or liquid capacity, the prefixes are the same:

            kilo, hecto, deca, UNIT (i.e., Meter, Gram, Liter), deci, centi, milli

 

(To recall these you can create your own acronym, such as "King Henry Doesn't Usually Drink Chocolate Milk"

 

Whatever unit is given, just move the decimal point the NUMBER OF PLACES IN THE DIRECTION from the given to the desired measurement.

 

So, to convert decameters to centimeters move the decimal point from "DECA" to "CENTI" or 3 UNITS TO THE RIGHT.

 

Thus --> 27.3 DECAmeters converts to 27,300 CENTImeters

 

Good Luck!

Donna

Answer 2

Centimeters means 10^-2 m.  Decameters means 10¹ m.

 

We write the conversion using scientific notation.

 

______ × 10^-2 m = 27.3 × 10¹ m

 

 

Notice that the units on each side of the conversion are the same.  Your job here is to fill in that blank.