Expert: Walter Hintz - 5/16/2008

Question
I'm having trouble understanding unit conversions. My question is suppose that, from measurements in a microscope, you determine that a certain bacterium covers an area of 1.50 micro meters squared. Convert this to square meters.

I've tried to look at examples and nothing seems to work. If you could please break it down for me so I can understand this. Thank you very much.

Answer
1 micon (micrometer = 10 to the -6 meters
so
1 square micro would equal 1 x 10 to the -12 square m
 There fore you would move the decimal point 12 spaces to the left.
1.5 sq microns would equal
   .000000000001.5 sq M

   All you have to do is move decimal points
    When you are converting small units to latger units mov ethe decimal poit to the left.
    When converting larger units to smaller move it to the right

An example
Convert 1.65 M to centimeters
There are 100 cm in a meter so I would get 165 cm