Many occupations require converting between metric units, including tradespeople, engineers, scientists, and medical professionals. It is easiest to use a conversion chart that shows relationships between units like kilometers, meters, centimeters, and millimeters. Area and volume conversions involve squaring or cubing the units, so they can produce very large results. Common area units include hectares and square meters, while volume is often measured in cubic meters, liters, or milliliters. Liquid volume is termed capacity. Mass conversions also use multiples of 1000, with the gram and kilogram as base units.

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2. Many people need to convert Metric Units as part of their job.
People such as Tradesmen, Engineers, Scientists, Construction Workers,
Doctors, Pharmacists, Fashion Designers, Interior Decorators, Architects,
Builders, Statisticians, Nurses, Firemen, CSI Detectives, and many others.
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3. It is easiest to use a conversion look-up diagram like the one below.
Km m cm mm
x 1000 x 100 x 10
÷ 1000 ÷ 100 ÷ 10
5km = ? m Need to x 1000 5 x 1000 = 5000m
120cm = ? m Need to ÷ 100 120 ÷ 100 = 1.2m

4. AREA consists of Square Units, so we need to SQUARE all our Lengths.
Km2 m2 cm2 mm2
x 10002 x 1002 x 102
÷ 10002 ÷ 1002 ÷ 102
5km2 = ? m2 Need to x 10002 5 x 1000 x 1000 = 5 000 000 m2
1200cm2 = ? m2 Need to ÷ 1002 1200 ÷ 100 ÷ 100 = 0.12 m2

5. A “Hectare” ( symbol “ha”) is a square of land that is 100m by 100m big.
Km2 ha m2
x 100 x 1002
÷ 100 ÷ 1002
8ha = ? m2 Need to x 1002 8 x 100 x 100 = 80 000 m2
4200ha = ? km2 Need to ÷ 100 4200 ÷ 100 = 42 km2
100m
100mha
One Hectare
= 2.47 Acres

6. 100m x 100m “Hectare” measures are used by Farmers, Property
Developers, and Fire Fighters to measure amounts of land.

7. VOLUME consists of Cube Units, so we need to CUBE all our Lengths.
Km3 m3 cm3 mm3
x 10003 x 1003 x 103
÷ 10003 ÷ 1003 ÷ 103
3m3 = ? cm3 Need to x 1003 3 x 100 x 100 x 100 = 3 000 000 cm3
VOLUME conversions use powers of 3, and usually create very large results.
VOLUME is how much 3D space is occupied, and is measured in cubes.

8. A sugar cube is roughly 1cm3 in size.
The architectural model shown here is made of sugar cubes.
- It takes a lot of cubes to make a model like this.
If we wanted to make a 1m x 1m x 1m solid block using sugar
cubes, we would need: 1m3 x100 x100 x100 = 1 million cubes!

9. If we have a container filled with liquid or gas,
the Volume is specified in “Capacity” units.
Capacity units are Millilitres (mL), Litres (L),
Kilolitres (kL) and Megalitres (ML).
1 mL = 1 cm3 1 L = 1000 cm3
1 L = 1000 mL
1 ML = 1 000 000 L
1 m3 = 1000 L
1 L of Water weighs 1 kg

10. A cylindrical can of Coca Cola has a
volume of 375cm3, but is labeled as
375mL because it contains liquid.

11. The city of Melbourne’s main water storage (The
Thomson Dam) has a capacity of 1.07 million ML .
1 070 000 000 000 x 1 litre bottles of Coca Cola

12. In the Metric System, Capacity is based on the Litre or “L” unit.
ML kL L mL
x 1000 x 1000 x 1000
÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000
32ML = ? L Need to x 1000 twice 32 x 1000 x 1000 = 32 000 000 L
CAPACITY conversions use 1000’s, and usually create fairly large results.
The Volume of Liquids and Solids is usually measured as a “Capacity”.

13. In the Metric System, Mass is based on the Gram or “g” unit.
tonne kg g mg
x 1000 x 1000 x 1000
÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000
1.6 tonne = ? kg Need to x 1000 1.6 x 1000 = 1600 kg
Mass conversions use 1000’s, and usually create fairly large results.
The Mass for weighing objects in Metric Units is similar to Capacity for Volumes.

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