7.01 Convert units of length
Are you ready?
Do you remember how to multiply numbers by $100$100 or $1000$1000?
Fill in the boxes with the missing numbers.
$5\times\editable{}=500$5×=500
$5\times\editable{}=5000$5×=5000
Learn
To convert between units of length, we can use these measurement facts:
- $100$100 cm $=$= $1$1 m
- $1000$1000 m $=$= $1$1 km
- $12$12 in $=$= $1$1 ft
- $3$3 ft $=$= $1$1 yd
To convert from a larger unit to a smaller unit, we can multiply by the conversion factor.
For example, how do we convert $7$7 meters into centimeters?
We know that $100$100 cm $=$= $1$1 m, so we want to multiply the number of meters by $100$100.
$7\times100=700$7×100=700
So $7$7 meters is the same as $700$700centimeters.
Apply
Convert $10$10 feet to inches.
We need a large number of smaller units in order to make up one larger unit. This is why we need to multiply when converting from a larger unit to a smaller one.