● Accurate measurements are extremely important to chemistry.

Most of the world uses

the metric system of measurements, while the United States uses the English system.
Scientists, however, use the International System of Units (SI), which has its roots in the
metric system.
● The base units of measurement for the SI system are:
○ Length - Meter (m)
○ Mass - Kilogram (kg)
○ Time - Second (s)
○ Temperature - Kelvin (K)
○ Amount of substance - Mole (mol)
○ Electric current - Ampere (A)
○ Luminous intensity - Candela (cd)
● Meter - The meter is a unit of length equal to 39.37 inches, or 100 centimeters. The
meter was originally defined as 1/10,000,000 the distance between the North Pole and
the equator. However, the modern meter is defined as the distance that light travels in a
vacuum during 1/299,792,458 of a second.
● Kilogram - The kilogram is a measure of how much matter is in an object. This is a
measurement of mass. Weight, on the other hand, is how much gravity pulls on an
object, which can vary depending on location. One kilogram on Earth is equal to 2.205
pounds. One kilogram is equal to 1000 grams, which is another common measurement.
● Second - The second used to be defined with the values of days and years, but the
modern second is defined as the duration of 0,192,631,770 periods of the radiation
emitted from a certain transition in a cesium-133 atom.
● Kelvin - Kelvins are a unit of temperature. Temperature is the average kinetic energy of
the molecules in an object. The molecules in a hot glass of water are vibrating faster
than the molecules in a cold glass. The Kelvin scale was designed to avoid negative
numbers when measuring temperature. 0 Kelvin is defined as the coldest temperature
possible, where the kinetic energy of the molecules is equal to zero. This is called
absolute zero, and colder temperatures than this cannot exist.
● Celsius - Celsius is a common unit used instead of Kelvins. To find the Celsius value,
add 273.15 to the Kelvin value, and vice versa to transfer from Celsius to Kelvin. With
Celsius, water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees.
● Prefix multipliers can be used to show very big or very small numbers using powers of
10. It goes like this in the positive direction: kilo (10^3), mega (10^6), giga (10^9), tera
(10^12), peta (10^15), and exa (10^18). In the negative direction, it goes deci (10^-1),
centi (10^-2), milli (10^-3), micro (10^-6), nano (10^-9), pico (10^-12), femto (10^-15),
and atto (10^-18).
● Derived Units are units that come from other units. Examples are the SI units for speed
(meters per second) and density (mass/volume).
● Volume - The SI units for volume are cubic meters and cubic centimeters. However,
milliliters and liters are also commonly used in chemistry. One milliliter is equal to one
cubic centimeter.
● Density - Density is how much of a material is packed into a certain amount of volume.
The equation for density is D = m/v. The SI unit for density is kg/m^3, but g/cm^3 or
g/mL are often used for the densities of liquids and solids.