Many times in your life you will have a need to make estimates of weights and measures without the benefit of a ruler, measuring tape or set of scales (balance). Knowing such things as your body weight and height, the weight and volume of a 2-liter soft drink bottle (which we work with in class all the time), the length of your stride,  and the width of your hand may be beneficial in an emergency some day.
    The objective of this project is to introduce you to the metric units of measure and provide you with practical tools.

Mass and weight
    Mass is  the amount of matter in a substance or an object. Weight is how much force is exerted on an object's mass by gravity. The standard unit of mass is the gram (g) and one thousand grams equals one kilogram (kg) or kilo. Because we are concerned with practical matters in this class, we will consider a kilogram of mass to be equal to a kilogram of weight. What is your body weight in kilograms? The conversion is 2.2 pounds per kilogram or 0 .454 kilos per pound. Therefore, if a persons body weight is 154 pounds:

Length
    The standard unit of length is one meter (m). Pick up a meter stick and you will see 100 divisions. Each of these divisions is a centimeter (cm), and they are further subdivided into millimeters(mm). Milli- means "thousand" and there are, yes, 1000 millimeters in a meter.
    When I was in school, I learned that my hand width was about 4 inches wide. In the metric system, my hand is 10 cm, an easy number to remember. Divide that by 4 fingers and you get 2.5 cm per finger, which is an inch (there are 2.54 cm per inch). Thus, by remembering my own information, I never have to memorize the 2.54 cm/inch conversion - I can always figure it out. What is your hand width?

For estimating longer distances, like putting out range markers near a deer stand, "pacing" is an alternative when you don't have a tape measure. Calculate your stride length or the heel-heel (or toe-toe) distance of one step. To minimize error due to variation, you should take a number of steps and calculate the average stride. In our hall one tile is 30 cm. So, take 10 steps, count the number of tiles (estimate fraction of the last one), multiply by 30 and divide by 10 steps to get the average step length in cm (more simple is to count the tiles in 10 steps and multiply by 3). What is your stride length?

Make a homemade measuring tape: In groups, measure out at least 10 meters of cotton string. Carefully tie knots at each one-meter increment (careful about shrinkage due to tying). When you get 11 knots - 10 segments, you can color or dye alternating segments to make the tape more useful in the field. I have some sumac dye which will work on cotton. (see the dye project for more info on this)
 
 

Volume
   You know what a 2-liter bottle looks like. Well, half of that is the standard unit of volume in metric - one liter. Guess what? One liter of water weighs one kilogram! One gram equals one milliliter (ml)!  Put a kg of water in a 2-liter bottle and look at it carefully. How many centimeters high is the water level? Hint: Use the width of your hand to estimate. Now you can use 2-liter bottles as a way of estimating volume. Hey! How about a spring-water bottle that holds 500 ml, or a half liter. Keep some around the house and if you get a recipe from Europe off the cable Food Network, then you're ready to go!

Time
        The basic unit is a "second". In school I learned to estimate by sounding "one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three . . . ". You can still do this, but it takes practice to count slow for something going fast!! Later, I learned my resting heart rate(sitting around but not exercising) is about 55 beats per minute during the day. So, I can use that to estimate a minute pretty good because it's about 1 beat per second. What is your heart rate? Could it be an effective "clock" for you? Does it change with activitiy?

Criteria
To receive credit for this project you must either pass this quiz section on the 4 1/2 week test or complete the practical.

    Quiz Questions:

1.     What is your hand width?     ________________ cm
2.     What is your stride length? ____________  cm
3.     What is your height? ___________inches;    _____________  cm
4.     What is your body weight? ______________ lbs;    _______________ kg

        (2) Calculate the distance between two objects (assigned by me) using pacing only (your stride length times number of steps). You must be within 5% of the true distance which will be between 15 and 30 meters.

You may continue to work on the practical test until you have successfully completed it or until interim grade report, whichever comes first..