Math Conversion-Metric system Help!!!!!!!

[determined_30]

Hi! I am really having a hard time with the metric system. I am taking biology in the Fall and I just cant figure out these metric conversions. Can anyone please recomend sites, books, notes, etc, that will help me understand how to do math conversions? Thanks in advance.

[meg2014]

Your welcome :-)

[usmetricnut]

Dimensional analysis is an important tool, but more important is to learn to THINK in metric. It's easier than you think, once you learn that everything is all related. This is especially important in medication dosing. Please take a few minutes to see a talk given on metric by the late Pat Naughton. While not specifically about nursing, he touches upon use of metric in pediatric nursing. His talk beautifully explains how the metric system is a SYSTEM, it it will make much more sense once you see this.

Hope this helps!

Scott

[edwschl]

Hi everyone,

It is not to long ago I took chemistry, biology and completed a certificate in Lab Methods. The best way I found to understand the SI metric system is to work in and with it not convert, but compare. I am 170 cm and 67.9 kg. A meter is about floor to waist height. A kilogram is 1000 grams and a gram is 1000 mg. A kilogram is about six pieces of fruit. A idea ones learns for medication is a Ld (lethal dose) measured in mg substance/kg body weight. There is no better conversion in US standard. So I suggest make comparision for yourself. A one cent coin is two grams.

Be Well!

Ed

[MarkHenschel]

The real problem here is that this student was not exposed to the Metric System in fourth grade, or fifth grade or sixth grade or basically not any time in any significant way until she got to nursing school. There the emphasis was on conversion. Of course she is confused. This does not happen in metric countries. The Metric System is not a conversion, but a complete system which, when used by itself, is extremely easy. We clearly need much more metric education in our middle schools and high schools, so students will learn to "think metric" and not think of the Metric System as something that needs to be converted from or to. Ninety six percent of doctors and nurses around the world use the Metric System only, with no use of inch-pound units at all. Body mass index is much easier in the Metric System, just take your mass in kilograms and divide by your height in meters squared. No conversions necessary. And for temperature, remember the poem : "30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 wear a coat, 0 is ice". Much easier than all that multiplying, dividing, adding and subtracting from Fahrenheit.