William S. answered • 08/19/22
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The Picket Fence method is a method that allows for a straightforward conversion from one unit to another.
In order to use it, draw a cross in order to make four cuadrants large enough to write in.
In the top-left quadrant, place your starting measurement in its starting units.
In the bottom-right quadrant, place a measurement of length 1 with the same units as your starting measurement.
In the top-right quadrant, write your 1-length unit's conversion rate into your answer units.
Cancel out the units in the top-left and bottom-right quadrants.
Finally, multiply the values in the two top quadrants in order to obtain your converted measurement!
With the problem at hand, the process would be as follows:
19 km 10^3 m
1km
Cancel out the kilometer units as follows:
19 km 10^3 m
1 km
Multiplying the two top quadrants we get:
19*10^3 m=19000 m
