Ask Dr. Math

Middle School Archive

Browse Middle School Terms/Units of Measurement
Stars indicate particularly interesting answers or good places to begin browsing.

Selected answers to common questions:
    Equivalent measurements: tsp, oz, pt, lb.
    Measuring with Two Containers.
    Metric Measurements.
    Meters Squared or Square Meters?
    Unit conversions, unit cancellation.

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Megagram, Short Ton, Long Ton [03/12/2002]

How does a megagram compare to a a short ton or a long ton?

Mensuration [5/16/1996]

How far can a car travel with a full tank of petrol? What's the height of the aquarium?

Meters, Centimeters [03/12/2001]

How many times as long as 2 centimeters is a meter stick?

Metres Squared and Square Metres [05/02/2003]

Are square metres and metres squared the same thing?

Metric and Standard Rulers [04/20/2001]

In the United States we only use a customary (standard) ruler, and in other parts of the world they use the metric side. Why do we just use the standard side?

Metric and Unit Conversions [11/02/1998]

How many feet/second is 60 miles/hour?

Metric Conversion [10/23/1996]

How many meters is 67 centimeters equal to?

Metric Conversions [01/16/1997]

How do I convert cubic yards to cubic meters?

Metric Cup [05/15/2000]

How many milliliters are there in a metric cup?

Metric Prefixes [9/15/1996]

What are the metric prefixes for 10e4, 10e5, 10e7, 10e8 and the corresponding neg. values?

Metric System Conversions [09/24/1998]

I need help with double conversions - for example, how many centimeters are there in 14.25 decameters?

Metric System Prefixes [09/17/1997]

My algebra teacher wrote the word teraflops on the board and told us to find the meaning.

Metric vs. Standard System [08/19/2001]

Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of the metric system and the standard system using weights and measures.

Miles Squared vs. Square Miles [07/09/1999]

What is the difference between 10 square miles and 10 miles square?

Motion and Force [11/28/2004]

You are a 50 pound person riding in a bus going 45 MPH, when the driver suddenly stops. If you were to 'fly' out of your seat, with how many pounds of force would you hit the windshield?

Nanograms per Gram [06/08/2001]

In units that say '2 ng g-1' (the (-1) is an exponent), what is the relation between 'ng' and 'g', and what does the "-1" exponent mean?

Nautical Mph/Knots [08/12/2003]

I want to know how fast the wind is blowing when the weather report states 5 knots.

Non-Metric Countries [04/23/2001]

What countries other than the U.S. are not using the metric system, and why?

Numbers in Hindi and Urdu [12/08/2000]

How many crores make one billion?

One Degree Latitude, Longitude: How Many Miles? [04/02/2002]

Approximately how many miles are there in one degree of longitude and one degree of latitude in the states of Kansas and Oklahoma?

Operations on Measurement Units [08/21/1998]

Why can we divide distance by time, but not add distance to time?

Origin of the Term Acre [03/10/2002]

What is the origin of the measurement acre?

Origin of the Word 'Yard' [9/12/1996]

Why do they call a yard, a yard? Where does this word originate?

Paint Formulas in Base 48 [08/20/1998]

I work for a paint store where our formulas are based on an ounce being 48 parts...

Parsec (pc) [10/26/2001]

One of the unit conversions my Casio fx-991MS calculator does is pc to km and km to pc. What does "pc" mean in this context?

A Peck of Peppers [02/27/2002]

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick? How much is a peck?

Pennies in a Mile [04/23/1999]

How many pennies are there in a mile?

pH Definition [10/20/2001]

What is the 'p' in pH?

The Pound Sign [04/06/2001]

Can the # symbol be used to represent the weight unit 'pounds'?

Prefix for 10^30 Bytes [05/25/2000]

What do you call 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10^30 bytes?

Pricing Products by Linear Foot or Square Foot [06/29/2005]

What is the difference between linear foot and square footage? I have received two prices for an item: $1.67 per square foot or $19.67 per linear foot. Why are they so different?

Problems on Rates and Unit Conversions [06/21/1999]

Can you help me with problems on rates and unit conversions?

Proper Abbreviation of Measurement Units [03/04/2004]

Is a period used after the abbreviations for the customary units of measurement? In the past, I understood that all abbreviations used a period. Now, I typically see inch as in., but ofter see foot (ft), yard (yd), and others with no period.

Quarts in a Gallon [03/20/2001]

Is there a way not to have to memorize a whole chart of unit conversions?

Radians [03/22/2001]

I have searched everywhere for the history behind radians. Why did they replace degrees?

Radians [9/2/1996]

Why do pi radians = 180 degrees?

Radians and Degrees [11/21/1994]

Why are radians preferable to degree measures?

Radian to Degree Conversions [11/11/2001]

Can you give me a table of radian measures and their reference degree measures for the unit circle?

Reciprocal Rate [11/28/2001]

An automobile gets 20 miles per gallon of fuel. Compute the reciprocal rate giving units of measurement.

Rods and Links [03/28/2002]

How many rods are there in a foot? How many links?

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