Decimal system, questions for non-US folks

[keptwoman]

So today we are doing MUS Zeta 6a.

 

First of all, bizarro spelling of litre and metre to liter and meter, but I knew the yanks did that.

 

Then kiloliter/meter/gram. We never use kilolitre, ever.

AND hectoliter/meter/gram... WTH, I've never even heard of these????

AND dekaliter/meter/gram... we very, very seldom use these units, we'd just say 10 grams, but my understanding was that in countries that do like France, they use deci not deka??

 

Is this just some bizarro US invention when they don't even use the metric system, or have I been living in a cupboard?

 

So. Here's the question for non-US folks who actually USE the metric system.

Do you say kilolitre?

Do you use hecto anything??

Do you use deka and if you do, do you use deka or deci?

[Impish]

No to kilolitre, hecto, nope, hectare, yup. Deca, not deka. And its really not used either.

 

Litre, mililitre, kilometre, metre, centimetre, milimetre, kilogram, gram. Those are the common units of measurement, at least that I use.

[Pixie]

I grew up in France. The only time I have ever seen hecto- or deca- used was in school problems about conversion, never in real life.

 

We use deciliter for 0.1 L, decimeter is also used but I have never heard anyone talk about decigram.

[Impish]

oh, and never heard it called the decimal system either. Just Metric.

[keptwoman]

oh, and never heard it called the decimal system either. Just Metric.

Yeah, that's my typo. They do call it the metric system.

I had deci on the brain :lol:

[keptwoman]

I grew up in France. The only time I have ever seen hecto- or deca- used was in school problems about conversion, never in real life.

 

We use deciliter for 0.1 L, decimeter is also used but I have never heard anyone talk about decigram.

 

The only reason I knew it was used was that I'd seen it on the bottom of French glassware and on softdrink bottles from Italy (Limonata nom nom) :tongue_smilie:

[keptwoman]

I grew up in France. The only time I have ever seen hecto- or deca- used was in school problems about conversion, never in real life.

 

We use deciliter for 0.1 L, decimeter is also used but I have never heard anyone talk about decigram.

 

LOL. Well first I HATE the term "yank". :lol: Second, no those measurements aren't used that I know of. And third we do use metric in some circumstances (science, technology, etc.).

 

I'm not a non U.S folk, but my DH is and would agree to all of what I just said. Although he might tease me on the yank thing. ;)

Think of Yank as a term of endearment :D My Nana was a young lady in her prime during WWII and she talks very fondly of the Yankee (meaning all of the US) soldiers that she met during the war. They took her out dancing and gave her nylons. :party:They were apparantly beautifully mannered and much more polite than the Kiwi boys of the time. She used to climb out her window, with the help of her mother and unbeknown to her father, to go out with them.:001_wub:

[Impish]

Sounds like Nana had a cool mom! :D

[Rosie_0801]

We never use kilolitre, ever.

 

When was the last time you read your water bill? :tongue_smilie:

 

Rosie

[amey311]

I wonder if some of the other measurements are used in scientific settings?

 

The biggest thing I took away from learning decimals in 6th grade math was

 

Kids Have Dropped over Dead Converting Metrics

Kilo Hecto Deca [unit] deci centi milli

 

Thank you, Mr. Vishnowski. I still use that.

 

Of course I also use

King Patterson Creates Order For Goofy Students for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, etc courtesy of Mr. Patterson, 7th grade science.

 

I'm a sucker for a mnemonic.

[stripe]

My son uses the full extent of the metric system. However, he should not be your point of reference. I think that people don't regularly use something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I don't even like to say dL or cL, I do everything in mL.

 

dekalitre (decalitre? is it c or k?) = 10 L (10 ^ 1 L)

decilitre = 100 mL (10 ^ -1 L)

So they are different things.

 

....Don't people say hectare?

[Greenmama2]

When was the last time you read your water bill? :tongue_smilie:

 

Rosie

Yah! :iagree:

Definitely Deca not Deka (WT?)

Never heard of Heca anything. Except a hectare...

[Amber in AUS]

Surprised that you dint say gigalitre too :) And yep, our water is charged by the kilolitre.

[TravelingChris]

I am an American but lived in Belgium for three years. They did have deciliters and decigrams on some packages or signs for food- like 50 decigrams for .5 Euro for some spice- I am not remembering exactly but usually it was for items that weren't going to be bought in large enough quantities for a kilogram. I did see ads for hectacres- I lived in a small town next to farms and there were real estate ads that mentioned hectacres- I had no idea how much that was compared to acre and I wasn't buying a farm so I never investigated it further.

[Peela]

I am guessing they are technically, scientifically correct terms, just not ones we commonly use.

[Teachin'Mine]

They're probably in the math book for working the conversions, not necessarily because they're used in real life. :) Kids are taught all kinds of unusual measurements, even in the standard US measurements, just to give them practice converting.

[freerange]

No to all your questions. We're more likely to encounter micro.

[Daisy]

Hey, this yank is going to be annoyed if we slaved over learning the metric system only to discover huge portions of it are not even used. :lol:

 

I'm not telling my kids about this thread. :tongue_smilie:

[keptwoman]

Hey, this yank is going to be annoyed if we slaved over learning the metric system only to discover huge portions of it are not even used. :lol:

 

I'm not telling my kids about this thread. :tongue_smilie:

:lol: Yeah, disappointing eh!

[Laura Corin]

 

So. Here's the question for non-US folks who actually USE the metric system.

Do you say kilolitre?

Do you use hecto anything??

Do you use deka and if you do, do you use deka or deci?

 

Laura

[LaxMom]

 

Is this just some bizarro US invention when they don't even use the metric system, or have I been living in a cupboard?

 

i?

 

Speaking on behalf of the Yanks: yes, we like to invent ridiculously complex systems we can credit to the rest of the world. It helps us justify our own ridiculously inefficient systems. ;)

 

Other than hectares (in land surveys), I've never seen other than those you use. And I've only seen deci and deca. Never, ever with a k.

[Sputterduck]

Here you go

yotta-

zetta-

exa-

peta-

tera-

giga-

mega-

kilo-

hecto-

deca-

deci-

centi-

milli-

micro-

nano-

pico-

femto-

atto-

zepto-

yocto-

 

http://www.simetric.co.uk/siprefix.htm

This is a UK site. Just because you don't say them in everyday life doesn't mean that they don't exist and aren't proper.

[keptwoman]

Yeah, but whether you need to learn them unless you have a specific need to do so is another question I guess.

I can see that in certain fields there may be a need for them, so why not leave learning them until you actually need to use them, since the average Joe on the street does not. I just skipped the chapter.

[Sputterduck]

Yeah, but whether you need to learn them unless you have a specific need to do so is another question I guess.

I can see that in certain fields there may be a need for them, so why not leave learning them until you actually need to use them, since the average Joe on the street does not. I just skipped the chapter.

 

Because it's great math practice. And because when you go into a field that needs them, there are enough other things to learn. If you take that mindset, you can get rid of most education. Why teach foreign language unless there is an immediate need for it? Why teach calculus? geometry? trigonometry? algebra? Why even teach how to get the slope of a line? Why teach grammar if the kid speaks alright already? Why teach how to do a report? Why teach how to research? Just leave it for when they need it, if they ever really will, and let them learn it then.

[keptwoman]

Because this particular kid needs things drilled over and over and over, and it will not sink in so I am not wasting a week of my time teaching him stuff that is 1/irrelevant to his life and 2/ likely to have fallen out of his brain in 2 weeks anyway.

I don't see this as the same as many other maths concepts or a foreign language. I didn't ever learn this at school and I have never missed it. I regularly regret my lack of a 2nd language, and even though children may not use that, it sets pathways in the brain that are there for life, and make 3rd+ languages easier to learn. Grammar, reports, research is necessary for every person to know how to do, everyone needs to know how to write well. I was not taught formal grammar and I regularly see the need for what I don't know.

Other maths concepts would have more use than this, very narrow set of terms which must be only used by a minute subset of the population.

[Laura Corin]

Because it's great math practice.

 

The beauty of the metric system is that it is highly logical. If one needs a larger or smaller unit, it's very quick to look up the terminology and one can use it straight away. One cannot look up whole new aspect of a foreign language in two minutes and suddenly speak it, nor can one look up algebra and suddenly use it. I'm all for learning skills that build on each other - it's great brain training and produces a potentially useful body of knowledge. For me, it's just not necessary to learn the complete metric terminology.

 

FWIW, I only remember being introduced to the outlying metric terms, not being expected to learn or use them extensively. I was of the generation which learned pounds, shillings and pence as well as the decimal currency; feet and inches as well as metric. We were well capable of dealing with complexity, but it just wasn't necessary to learn every term.

 

Laura

[Sputterduck]

The beauty of the metric system is that it is highly logical. If one needs a larger or smaller unit, it's very quick to look up the terminology and one can use it straight away. One cannot look up whole new aspect of a foreign language in two minutes and suddenly speak it, nor can one look up algebra and suddenly use it. I'm all for learning skills that build on each other - it's great brain training and produces a potentially useful body of knowledge. For me, it's just not necessary to learn the complete metric terminology.

 

FWIW, I only remember being introduced to the outlying metric terms, not being expected to learn or use them extensively.

 

Laura

 

And I'm sure the math curriculum wasn't expecting that either, but was asking for work at the math level where converting from 1000 of one thing to .1 of another is appropriate for the level of thinking the child is at. In the US it's a quick chapter of practice and then it's done. Nobody asks for the whole thing to be practiced for extensive use. It is good to be familiar with the terms though, so a person doesn't have a reaction of "What in the world is *that*?? I've never heard of that before."

[keptwoman]

Touche.

I think that the fact I've got to 41 without hearing about it, or seeing any need for it kind of proves my point. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

[Sputterduck]

Touche.

I think that the fact I've got to 41 without hearing about it, or seeing any need for it kind of proves my point. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

I'm sure much of what you learned in school you'll never use. Isn't that what teens say to try to justify getting out of doing their work? The point isn't what you will use or not. The point is getting a full education, regardless of what you choose to do with your adult life. And, yes, we'll probably have to agree to disagree on that. :001_smile: