Julio Guevara

Id: 201513633

TL1H

Systems of Measurement

What’s a System of Measurement?

Is a set of units of measurement which can be used to specify anything which can
be measured and were historically important, regulated and defined because of
trade and internal commerce.

The most important systems of measurements are the UKS(United Kingdom System
or British System), IS(International System) and MS(Metric System).

UKS (United Kingdom System or British System)

“A system of weights and measures based on the foot and pound and second
and pint.”

- Dictionary definition.

Was the traditional system of weights and measures used officially in Great Britain
from 1824 until the adoption of the metric system beginning in 1965. The United
States Customary System of weights and measures is derived from it. British Imperial
units are now legally defined in metric terms.

SI (International System)

“A complete, coherent system of units used for scientific work, in which the
fundamental quantities are length, time, electric current, temperature, luminous
intensity, amount of substance, and mass. The International System unit of length is
the meter; the unit of time is the second.”

- Dictionary definition.

The system was established in order to allow comparison of measurements made

in one country with those made in another. SI units and their relative values were
adopted by an international association of scientists meeting in Paris in 1960. Table
2.1 lists the basic SI units and derived units. Notice that metric units are part of this
system. The system still in common, nonscientific use in the United States is called
the English system, even though England, like most other developed countries,
now uses metric units. Anyone using units from both the English and SI systems
needs to be aware of a few simple relationships between the two systems.

MS (Metric System)

“A decimal system of units based on the meter as a unit length, the kilogram as a
unit mass, and the second as a unit time.”

- Dictionary definition.

The metric system uses units such as meter, liter, and gram to measure length,
liquid volume, and mass, just as the U.S. customary system uses feet, quarts, and
ounces to measure these. In addition to the difference in the basic units, the metric
system is based on 10s, and different measures for length include kilometer, meter,
decimeter, centimeter, and millimeter. Notice that the word “meter” is part of all of
these units. The metric system also applies the idea that units within the system get
larger or smaller by a power of 10. This means that a meter is 100 times larger than
a centimeter, and a kilogram is 1,000 times heavier than a gram. You will explore
this idea a bit later. For now, notice how this idea of “getting bigger or smaller by
10” is very different than the relationship between units in the U.S. customary
system, where 3 feet equals 1 yard, and 16 ounces equals 1 pound.