Are you ready?
Think about a feather and an elephant. Which one of those items do you think would be heavier?
Units of mass
This video introduces the units of grams, and kilograms and discusses the types of objects that would be measured by these units.
Examples
Example 1
Which unit is best to measure the mass of this cup of flour?
A gram has a mass similar to a piece of paper, or a feather. A kilogram has a mass similar to a 1 litre bottle of milk or juice.
The prefix can help with identifying the size of the units.
kilo - means "one thousand of", so a kilogram has 1000 grams.
Scales
This video looks at measuring the mass of objects using a scale.
Examples
Example 2
The scale below shows an object balanced evenly with a particular set of weights.
The following weights were on the scale:
What is the total mass of the object?
We can measure the mass of objects with different types of scales. Mechanical scales are just like a number line, but in a circle.