Why do we use metric system in science

The average human pinky finger is 1 cm wide! Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Essay What are two reasons that scientists use the metric system? Ben Davis May 8, What are two reasons that scientists use the metric system?

Why do scientists use the metric system? Why is metric system important? What are the benefits of scientist using the metric system worldwide? Why does the US still use imperial? Why the imperial system is bad? Who still uses imperial? Why does Canada still use imperial?

What is older metric or imperial? Does the UK use imperial? Did NASA use metric to get us to the moon? Does UK use kg or lbs?

Why do Brits use stone? For example, let's say someone told you that you had to walk 8, That sounds like a long walk, but let's convert the number into meters to see how long it really is. The base unit, meter, is three rows above the millimeter, so the decimal should be moved three places to the left.

It's less than 9 meters to the grocery store - or about 30 feet. Metric units can be abbreviated for simplicity. In science, it is common to work with very large and very small numbers. For example, the diameter of a red blood cell is 0.

It gets cumbersome to work with such long numbers, so measurements such as these are often written using a shorthand called scientific notation. Each zero in the numbers above represents a multiple of In scientific notation , can be written as 1 times 2 multiples of Scientific notation is a simple way to represent large numbers because the 10's exponent 2 in the example above tells you how many places to move the decimal of the coefficient 1 in the example above to obtain the original number.

In our example, the exponent 2 tells us to move the decimal to the right two places to generate the original number:. Scientific notation can be used even when the coefficient is a number other than 1. For example:. This shorthand can also be used with very small numbers.

When scientific notation is used with numbers less than one, the exponent on the 10 is negative, and the decimal is moved to the left, rather than the right. Therefore, using scientific notation , the diameter of a red blood cell is 6. Also note that in scientific notation , the base numeral is always represented as a single digit followed by decimals if necessary. Therefore, the number 0. Metric prefixes are listed below The prefixes most-commonly used in chemistry are listed in red : Prefix Symbol Decimal Value Power of Ten Exa- E 1,,,,,, 10 18 Peta- P 1,,,,, 10 15 Tera- T 1,,,, 10 12 Giga- G 1,,, 10 9 Mega- M 1,, 10 6 Kilo- k 1, 10 3 Hecto- h 10 2 Deka- da 10 10 1 no prefix 1 10 0 Deci- d 0.

Scaling the unit up or down when reporting measurements is good practice because: It can be used to keep the numeric value of measurements to reasonably-sized numbers, say between values of 0.

It can be used to remove ambiguous place-holding zeroes in measurments, so that the number of significant figures are properly represented. The prefixes instantly convey how many decimal place moves are required of the numeric value. Unofficial and external sites are not endorsed by Southeastern Louisiana University.