Succeed with maths – Part 2

2.3 Relating SI and imperial: mass

For the units covered in the course, the two systems are related as shown below:

Mass

  • 1 kg = 2.2 lb
  • 1 ounce = 28.3 g
  • 1 stone = 6.4 kg

If you are more familiar with imperial measurements, this will hopefully show how small a gram actually is. To get a feel for this, a paperclip has a mass of around a gram – so not very much in everyday terms!

To give yourself a good feel for both systems of measurement, try weighing a few everyday objects around you. Note down the mass in both systems of measurement.

Hopefully, you will now feel confident enough to convert between the SI and imperial system for mass without an example. So, it’s straight into our next activity. Remember to click on ‘reveal comment’ if you need a hint.

Activity 4 Relating SI and imperial units of mass

Allow approximately 5 minutes

  1. A baby weighs 3.7 kg when it is born. How much is this in pounds and ounces?

Discussion

This means converting from a physically larger unit to a smaller one. The final answer should therefore be larger.

Answer

  1. So the mass is 8 lb and 0.14 lb

    So, the baby weighed 8 lb and 2 oz (to the nearest ounce) when it was born.

  1. One litre of water has a mass of 1 kg. If a rainwater butt contains 120 litres of water, what mass of water does it contain?

Answer

b.

Now, onto our next section, which is about how the capacity of something is measured – that is, its volume. This is another of those measurements that is very familiar in everyday life, whether it is the quantity of milk in a container or how much fuel is needed to fill a car.

OpenLearn - Succeed with maths – Part 2
ou logoCreative Commons non-commercial share alike icon Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.