Downtown Campus Biology > Biology 181 > Lesson 1 Activities > Scientific Measurements- Page 7

Scientific Measurements, Part B

In Part B, you do not have to measure anything. You can do this part of the activity anywhere - you don't have to be in the BLC. In Part B, you will get additional practice in converting units, as well as learning two new prefixes for extremely small measurements. These new prefixes are micro- and nano-. Here are the relationships for length that we looked at back in Part A.

• 0.01 meters = 1 centimeter (cm)
• 0.001 meters = 1 millimeter (mm)
• 0.000001 meters = 1 micrometer (µm)
• 0.000000001 meters = 1 nanometer (nm)

Why are these new prefixes important?
When we look at cells and parts of cells (as we will in the next unit), it just makes sense to use an appropriate prefix. For example:

• A white blood cell is about 0.00001 m in diameter, but it is easier to think of it as 10 µm.
• A rhinovirus is about 0.00000003 m in diameter, but it is easier to think of it as 30 nm.

So now our column conversion chart will look something like this:

The staircase will look like this:

Now answer the 12 questions on your worksheet.

Please bring your work to someone at the front desk in the Biology Learning Center to receive lab points.

That's it!

ppage 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4 | page 5 | page 6 | page 7

Return to Lesson 1 Activities