Re: URGENT HELP REQUESTED PLEASE!! AT WITS END!!

[pukleja@umassd.edu (Paul Ukleja)]

Dear Imraan Lockhat,

Conversions might make more sense if they are "concrete".  For example,
for conversion from square meters to square centimeters, you could imagine
an actual square piece of the ground or a piece of paper, one meter on each
side (area = 1 m^2). Now imagine covering that square with small square
bits of paper, one cm on each side (area of each one is 1 cm^2).  You could
start by laying down  one row of the small squares along an edge of the
large square.  How many would be needed for this one row? 100 because you
must add 100 lengths of 1 cm each to make a row 1m long.

Now, how many rows are needed?  Well, each row is 1 cm wide, so it takes
100 to make up the full 1m in width.  Thus, you need 100 rows of 100 pieces
each, or 100^2 of the smaller bits to fill up the large area of 1 meter.

 Thus , starting with the statement that        1 m = 100 cm = 10^2 cm

you arrive at                                                        1m^2 =
(100 cm)^2 = 10^4 (cm^2)

Mathematically, you can start with the first equation, square it, and
arrive at the second.

Hopefully, but maybe not, this was PAINFULLY SLOWLY explained, but the
point of the torture here is that you really want to be ABLE TO FIGURE OUT
this sort of conversion, not REMEMBER it.  SO, if my explanation is of any
use to you, you can figure out how to convert from, for instance, m^3  (m
cubed in your notation) to cm^3.   Does this help, or did I shoot myself in
the foot here?

> Hi,
>
> I am in serious danger of not getting an A in my June examinations this
> semester
> here is good `ol South Africa. My name is Imraan Lockhat and I live in Durban,
> on the east coast. I`m 17.
>
> I am currently doing gas laws and the equations involved. The theory is
> fine and
> so are the equations because I get most of the answers but my biggest problem
> is conversions!!
>
> We work in the metric system and when dealing with gases and the ideal gas
> equations and general gas equation we often have to convert cubic figures and
> I do not have a clue on how to do these!
>
> I understand things in one dimension like 1cm = 10mm.
>
> But I do not know how to get the stuff in three dimensions. Could someone
> please
> explain this to me or give me something I could learn so that I can convert
> in my examination. We deal in the following:
>
> m cubed
> mm cubed
> cm cubed
> l cubed
> dm cubed
> km cubed
> ml cubed
>
> Thanks a lot in advance!!!!
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> Imraan Lockhat.
> 671 Essenwood Road        "If the world were my oyster, would I wake up?"
> Durban                    "Knowledge is Power"
> South Africa              "Ask NOT, what your country can do for you..."
>
>
> e-Mail: Imraanl@lia.co.za
> Tel: +27 (031) 292503
>     +27 (031) 2074573
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------

Paul Ukleja
Chairperson, Physics Dept.