Use Metric and Imperial Units to Solve Problems

In this activity, you will use your knowledge of metric and imperial units of measurement to solve some problems.

These are the key facts you will need to remember:

1 inch is approximately 2.54 cm

3 ft is approximately 1 m
5 miles is approximately 8 km
2 lbs is approximately 1 kg
1 oz is approximately 30 g
2 pints is approximately 1 litre

Example

Convert 6 cm to inches. Write your answer to 2 decimal places.

As there are 2.54 cm in an inch, we need to divide by 2.54.

6 cm ÷ 2.54 = 2.36 inches

So, 6 cm = 2.36 inches

Sometimes it can be tricky to decide whether to multiply or to divide by the conversion factor. If you find it hard to choose, you can try doing both and seeing if one makes more sense than the other!

For example, if you had multiplied in the example above, you would have got 6 x 2.54 = 15.24. Does it make sense that 6 cm is the same as more than 15 inches? No! So you know that you should have divided!