About Metric System:
- Metric system is an International system of measurement used commonly for measuring units in the world.
- Metric system exists in various choices of fundamental units although the choice of base units does not get affected in any form.
- Metric units are used universally in scientific work around the world for all forms of personal and commercial purposes.
- Standard set of prefixes in powers of ten are used to derive larger and smaller units from the base units.
- Goal of the metric system is to prescribe a single unit for every physical quantity so as to avoid the need for conversion factors.
- Meter is the basic unit used to measure lengths and distances. This unit is converted to many other units such as inches, feet, yards, fathoms, rods, chains, furlongs, miles, nautical miles, leagues, etc.
- Early metric system includes several fundamental or base units and other quantities are derived from the base units. For example the basic unit of speed is calculated as meters per second.
- The metric system is also called as decimal system because all multiples and sub multiples of the base units are basically factors of powers of ten.
- In a formal representation fractions are not used to represent Metric units.
Advantages of a decimal system:
- They substitute other non-decimal systems too apart from metric system of measurements.
- All derived units use a set of prefixes for each multiple such as kilo for mass (kilogram) or length (kilometer) both indicating a thousand times the base unit.
Metric System Chart
| Quantity | Unit | Symbol |
| Length | Millimeter Centimeter Meter Kilometer | mm cm m Km |
| Mass | Milligram gram Kilogram Ton | mg g Kg T |
| Time | Second | s |
| Temperature | Degree Celsius | oC |
| Area | Square meter hectare square kilometer | m2 Ha Km2 |
| Volume | Millimeter cubic centimeter liter cubic liter | ml cc L Cl |
| Speed | Meter per second Kilometer per second | m/s km/s |
| Density | Kilo gram per cubic meter | Km/cc |
| Force | Newton | N |
| Pressure | Kilo Pascal | K Pa |
| Power | Watt, kilo watt | W KW |
| Energy | Kilo joule, mega joule | KJ MJ |
| Current | ampere | A |
Prefixes used in Metric System Units
| Giga | G | 109 |
| Mega | M | 106 |
| Kilo | k | 103 |
| Centi | c | 10-2 |
| Milli | m | 10-3 |
| Micro | μ | 10-6 |
| Nano | n | 10-9 |
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