This is evidenced by the fact that the mass of the original prototype for the kilogram now weighs 50 micrograms less than other copies of the standard kilogram. Current use: As a base unit of SI, the kilogram is used globally in nearly all fields and applications, with the exception of countries like the United States, where the kilogram is used in many areas, at least to some extent such as science, industry, government, and the military but typically not in everyday applications.
The definition of the gram is based on the kilogram, where a gram is one thousandth of a kilogram, the SI base unit of mass. Since , the definition of the kilogram is no longer based on the international prototype, and rather is based on Planck's constant, h, along with the new definitions of the second and the meter.
The gram used to be a fundamental unit of mass as part of centimeter-gram-second systems of units up until the widespread adoption of SI, which uses kilograms as the base unit of mass. The gram was later redefined as one thousandth of a kilogram, the SI meter-kilogram-second system of units base unit of mass. No account yet? Create an account.
Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Write the number of grams. Label it "grams" or "g. In this section, we'll follow along with an example problem to make things easier. Let's say that we want to convert 20, grams to kilograms. To start, we would write " 20, grams " on our paper.
Divide by 1, A kilogram is one thousand grams. This means that to get kilograms from grams, you just need to divide the number of grams by 1, In our example, we would get kilograms by dividing 20, grams by 1, Label your answer.
Don't forget this step! Labeling your answer with the proper units is important. If you're doing this conversion for schoolwork, you can lose points if you don't label. If you're doing it for something else, people may assume the wrong units. To get back to grams, multiply by 1, As discussed above, a kilogram is one thousand grams.
This means that if you ever want to get back to grams from kilograms, all you need to do is multiply the number of kilograms by 1, Since multiplications is basically the "opposite" operation as division, this will "undo" the division and give you grams. Method 2. Start with your number of grams. Believe it or not, you can convert between grams and kilograms without doing any math. This works because the metric system is a base 10 system of measurements.
In other words, metric units are always a multiple of 10 apart from each other — there are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, centimeters in a meter, 1, meters in a kilometer, and so on. In this section, let's convert 37 grams to kilograms. We would begin the same way as in the section above, writing " 37 grams " on our paper. Shift the decimal point three spaces to the left. Now, find the decimal point in your number of grams. If you're converting a whole number, this won't usually be written, but you can assume it its to the right of the ones place.
Move the decimal point three spaces to the left. Each time you move past a number counts as one space. If you run out of numbers to move past, keep moving it, leaving blank spaces. Image Source: pixel via Pixabay CC0. Using multiplication to convert kilograms to grams. Divide, on the other hand, to convert grams to kilograms. And cancel out the units you don't need along the way. For example, if you're converting from kilograms to grams, the kilograms should cancel out.
Your final answer should ONLY have grams. The reverse is also true. If you convert from grams to kilograms, the grams should cancel out. This video by larryschmidt goes through a more complicated conversion of units. Normally, we've been seeing problems where we had to convert one unit. But what if there are multiple conversions to be done? A simple way to do this is using a conversion table.
Let's look at an example and work through it to see how it's done. These are unit rates , because the units are a ratio of two other units. Each of these unit rates are an amount of mass per unit of volume. The first conversion we want to make is turning kilograms into grams. Actually we can do the steps in multiple orders, but we'll show you how it works this way.
In the next two boxes, write down this conversion. Make sure kg is in the bottom box so that it can cancel out with the one above. We'll do all the cancellations at the end.
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