Metric System Summary

In the previous pages you have a brief description of the metric system and its most common prefixes: milli-, centi-, and kilo-. They are related to whatever basic unit is attached to the prefix in the name by 1/1,000th or 1/100th or 1,000 times the size of that basic unit. Those units and prefixes are summarized in this table.

Property	Base Unit	1000 x Base	0.01 x Base	0.001 x Base
length	meter (m)	kilometer (km)	centimeter (cm)	millimeter (mm)
volume	liter (L)	kiloliter (kL)	centiliter (cL)	milliliter (mL)
mass	gram (g)	kilogram (kg)	centigram (cg)	milligram (mg)

Additional metric prefixes and their meanings are listed in your text and in your workbook.

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E-mail instructor: Eden Francis