Metric units are used almost universally and very handy (pun intended, since it is a base ten system... you know because that's the number of
fingers most of us are blessed with!). Since all metric prefixes are powers of 10, you just have to multiply or divide by a power of ten when
converting from, for example, a centimeter to kilometer. You just need to be able to use the following conversions noted below in the tables.
Here you would divide the number of centimeters, by 100,000 , since there are 100 centimeters in a meter, and 1,000 meters in a kilometer.
Therefore there are 100,000 (100 times 1,000) centimeters in 1 kilometer.

Units of Length
10 millimeters (mm)	= 1 centimeter (cm)
10 centimeters	= 1 decimeter (dm) = 100 millimeters
10 decimeters	= 1 meter (m) = 1000 millimeters
10 meters	= 1 dekameter or decameter (dam)
10 dekameters	= 1 hectometer (hm) = 100 meters
10 hectometers	= 1 kilometer (km) = 1000 meters

 

width="175">= 1 centigram (cg)

Units of Mass
10 centigrams	= 1 decigram (dg) = 100 milligrams
10 decigrams	= 1 gram (g) = 1000 milligrams
10 grams	= 1 dekagram (dag)
10 dekagrams	= 1 hectogram (hg) = 100 grams
10 hectograms	= 1 kilogram (kg) = 1000 grams
1000 kilograms	= 1 megagram (Mg) or 1 metric ton(t)

 

Units of Liquid Volume
10 milliliters (mL)	= 1 centiliter (cL)
10 centiliters	= 1 deciliter (dL) = 100 milliliters
10 deciliters	= 1 liter or litre = 1000 milliliters
10 liters	= 1 dekaliter (daL)
10 dekaliters	= 1 hectoliter (hL) = 100 liters
10 hectoliters	= 1 kiloliter (kL) = 1000 liters

Units of Area
100 square millimeters (mm2)	= 1 square centimeter (cm2)
100 square centimeters	= 1 square decimeter (dm2)
100 square decimeters	= 1 square meter (m2)
100 square meters	= 1 square dekameter (dam2) = 1 are
100 square dekameters	= 1 square hectometer (hm2) = 1 hectare (ha)
100 square hectometers	= 1 square kilometer (km2)

 

 

Units of Volume
1000 cubic millimeters (mm3)	= 1 cubic centimeter (cm3)
1000 cubic centimeters	= 1 cubic decimeter (dm3)
	= 1 000 000 cubic millimeters
1000 cubic decimeters	= 1 cubic meter (m3)
	= 1 000 000 cubic centimeters
	= 1 000 000 000 cubic millimeters