Millimeters (mm)

If you look at a meterstick very carefully, you will see little spaces between short lines. Each one of these spaces is a millimeter.
  1. There are 1000 millimeters in a meter. What do you think milli- means?
  2. How many millimeters are in a centimeter?
  3. How many millimeters are in a decimeter? How did you decide?
  4. People generally use millimeters to measure very short lengths. Give an example of when it would make sense to measure in millimeters.

Measuring with Metersticks, Skinnies, and Bits

John measured the length of the chalkboard in his classroom. First, he used two metersticks. He saw that less than half of a third meterstick would fit. John said, “To the nearest whole meter, this length is 2 meters.”