Metric Mastery B

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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by hscmom »

Unome wrote:Does anyone know any good methods for estimating mass?
IMO, Mass is more difficult than length and volume. One very simple thing we did is to collect different household things (a can of soup, a pack of index cards, a shoe - you get the idea) and stick them on the scale and write the mass in Sharpie.

Then practice. Heft your mass the same way each time (in other words, if you don't rest your hefting elbow on a table today, don't rest it on there tomorrow).
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by awesome90220 »

I really should know this, but during measurements for things like mass and volume, how do you do the decimals on that? say you measure it to be 91.1 mm, 32.0 mm, and 28.7 mm, would you just multiply them all and stick that in as your answer?
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by treeling »

awesome90220 wrote:I really should know this, but during measurements for things like mass and volume, how do you do the decimals on that? say you measure it to be 91.1 mm, 32.0 mm, and 28.7 mm, would you just multiply them all and stick that in as your answer?
No. Remember to use sig figs.
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by hscmom »

treeling wrote:
awesome90220 wrote:I really should know this, but during measurements for things like mass and volume, how do you do the decimals on that? say you measure it to be 91.1 mm, 32.0 mm, and 28.7 mm, would you just multiply them all and stick that in as your answer?
No. Remember to use sig figs.
Yup. The sonic website has the SO policies on sig figs. And, remember to multiply units!
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Re: Metric Mastery B

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mrburrito wrote:
roz_m wrote:Does anyone have any good recourses for metric mastery? I have basic information but I want to get more into the history of the metric system.
Yes, rulers and triple beam balances. :D
Calipers usually come up on the tests too. Also, graduated cylinders would be useful.
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by Pele »

hscmom wrote:
Unome wrote:Does anyone know any good methods for estimating mass?
IMO, Mass is more difficult than length and volume. One very simple thing we did is to collect different household things (a can of soup, a pack of index cards, a shoe - you get the idea) and stick them on the scale and write the mass in Sharpie.

Then practice. Heft your mass the same way each time (in other words, if you don't rest your hefting elbow on a table today, don't rest it on there tomorrow).
Agreed. Practice is key.
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by awesome90220 »

Hey for guessing weight, I've realized that when surface area on your hand is smaller, you'll feel more pressure, meaning you'll feel its heavier. Is there a way to negate this?
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by billyhoho »

awesome90220 wrote:Hey for guessing weight, I've realized that when surface area on your hand is smaller, you'll feel more pressure, meaning you'll feel its heavier. Is there a way to negate this?
You actually want to make it "feel heavier" since that'll make it the most accurate. By minimizing surface area, you're allowing the calculation of the total weight to be more accurate (since otherwise, it would be "spread" along the whole hand/whatever, making objects seem to weigh less).
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by awesome90220 »

billyhoho wrote:
awesome90220 wrote:Hey for guessing weight, I've realized that when surface area on your hand is smaller, you'll feel more pressure, meaning you'll feel its heavier. Is there a way to negate this?
You actually want to make it "feel heavier" since that'll make it the most accurate. By minimizing surface area, you're allowing the calculation of the total weight to be more accurate (since otherwise, it would be "spread" along the whole hand/whatever, making objects seem to weigh less).
Well, what if it's like a cube? Say you used a dice as your reference, and it was, say, 1 gram. Then, at the competition, they give you a big foam dice and ask you to estimate the weight. It seems like, uh, I don't know, maybe 10 grams? But then, if you're doing measurement, you get it to be like 80 grams and you're like: AW MAN D:
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Re: Metric Mastery B

Post by hscmom »

Well, if a die is your only reference, it's going to be tough. You should have a few mass references. So, is that foam die more like a plastic die, a Hershey's kiss, a quarter, a paper plate, a hairbrush, a full roll of TP? You get the idea. You put something in your hand and think, "This feels heavier than a cell phone but lighter than a grapefruit." And, just by looking at it, you'll know a few things too. So, you've got you foam die in your hand. While it's about the volume of a kiwi fruit, it's a lot less dense, so you use the kiwi fruit's mass as the upper limit and you know you're nowhere close to it. So, you guess much lower.
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