6.1: Measurement

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Page ID: 88346

Leah Griffith, Veronica Holbrook, Johnny Johnson & Nancy Garcia
Rio Hondo College

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Measurement

There are two major systems of measurement in use today. They are the United States system and the metric system.

The metric system of measurement is the decimal system of measure developed in the 1790s in France. This system which is also referred to as SI is the official unit used by every country except the United States. These units use a standard set of prefixes such as milli, centi, kilo, deci

The US Customary Units is a system of measurement primarily used in the United States which was validated in 1832. This system of measurement came from the English units, the units of measure used in the British Empire before the formulation of the Imperial system on January 1, 1826, and before American Independence. The customary units are widely used in the areas of commerce and industry. Consumer products and industrial manufacturing materials are weighed or measured using the customary units as evident in their labels.

The common customary units of measure used are:

inch, foot, yard, and mile for lengths
acre for area
cubic inch, cubic foot, and cubic yard for volume and capacity
ounce, pint, quart, and gallon for fluid volume
pint and quart for dry volume

This section begins by defining measurement and its common uses.