MathsFreePrintable

Understanding Units of Measurement

A free maths worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Understanding Units of Measurement

Help a community event team plan equipment, supplies and transport. Use metric units unless a question asks otherwise. Show working for calculations and include units in your answers.

Choose and convert units

Use the metric-prefix reference below when converting between units.

Prefix

Symbol

Meaning

Example

kilo-

1,000 times the base unit

1 km = 1,000 m

centi-

one hundredth of the base unit

1 m = 100 cm

milli-

one thousandth of the base unit

1 L = 1,000 mL

1.The team needs to measure the width of a doorway to check whether a trolley will fit. Which unit is the most suitable: millimetres, metres or kilometres? Explain your choice.

2.A roll of bunting is 3.45 m long. Convert its length to centimetres.

3.A drink dispenser contains 7.2 L of juice. How many millilitres is this?

4.The equipment boxes have a total mass of 18,650 g. Write this mass in kilograms.

5.A volunteer says, “0.8 km is shorter than 750 m because 0.8 is less than 750.” Is the volunteer correct? Convert to the same unit and explain.

Plan the event

Apply measurement conversions to practical planning problems.

6.Water is sold in 1.5 L bottles. The team needs 9,000 mL altogether. How many full bottles should they buy?

7.A delivery route is 2.4 km to the park, then 850 m from the park to the storage shed. What is the total distance in metres and in kilometres?

8.A rectangular banner is 2.4 m long and 0.9 m wide. Calculate its area in square metres, then convert the area to square centimetres.

9.A storage tub holds 0.36 m³ of equipment. Convert its volume to litres. Use 1 m³ = 1,000 L.

10.A recipe from overseas lists 2 lb of flour. Use 1 lb ≈ 454 g to estimate the mass in grams and kilograms. Round to the nearest gram and nearest 0.01 kg.

11.The team has a 12 kg bag of rice and uses 750 g for each meal. How many complete meals can they prepare, and how much rice will remain?