Now that you have looked at metric lengths, you will turn your attention to mass.

Mass is the the physical volume or bulk of a solid body. In every day life, the word "weight" is often used when referring to mass. Keep in mind, however, that mass is the amount of matter in an object. Weight is a measure of how heavy an object is.

Try This:

Thinking about the metric system and the imperial system once again, which weighs more:

• A pound or a kilogram?

• An ounce or a gram ?

Measuring mass in the metric system is very similar to measuring length in the metric system. All of the prefixes are the same and you move between the units the same way.

The main difference is that you only use three of the units when you talk about mass.

Look at this chart:

Have you decided what are the three measurements that you use from the chart? Did you choose kilogram, gram, and milligram? If you did, you are correct!

We can use the metric conversion chart once again as we are converting units of mass. This time, the basic unit measurement for measuring mass is a gram.

(kilo — kg; hecto — hg; deka —  dag; gram — g; deci — dg; centi — cg;  milli — mg)

It is still 3 steps up to gram from milligram, so there are 1,000 milligrams in a gram. It is still 3 steps up to kilogram from gram, so there are 1,000 grams in a kilogram.

It is 3 steps up from grams to kilograms. Since you are going up the stairs, you will move the decimal place 3 places to the left in your number. Since your number doesn't have a decimal showing, put it at the end of the number and then move it.

1,287. becomes 1.287

This tells you the bag of jellybeans weighs 1.287 kg.

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