SI Units/English/Metric/American system?

Question

I'm getting confused about which is which because people refer to each system differently. Can you please explain to me which system uses what units?

Answer 1

SI and Metric are the same thing. Just about every nation (all but 3, actually - US, Myanmar, and one other) use the SI system of units. The American System is the same as the English system.

The metric system works in powers of tens. For example, for every thing you need a unit for (Such as mass, length, volume, etc), there is a base unit, and then you can make it larger/small with prefixes which indicate an increase or decrease in power of 10. (Ex. gram - kilogram - microgram; all gram with increased or decrease multiples of 10).

The American system is not so pretty. They use predetermined (often with no scientific basis) measurements, such as one foot. Multiples of ten are not used in the American system.

Answer 2

Hi,
Well, there are three main systems for the metric system: cgs (cemtimeter-gram-second), mks(meter-kilogram-second), and the SI system of units.
The SI system is an international system that pretty much adopted the core of the mks system, but many people (perhaps mostly in scientific labs dealing with small samples and often in physics books) still use the cgs system.
Then there's the English system which has the foot/slug/second.

I don't know if you're looking for advice, but if you're just starting out in some science course of study, I suggest you go to the Web and print one of the many available tables to put in a handy place, maybe in the back of your book.

FE

Answer 3

SI stands for systems internationale and it is the metric system with a whole lot more units in it. The American System is the one with feet inches pounds gallons etc. SI has kilograms kilometers centimeters meters milliliters and is the system science uses. it has made a mess of taking measurements in America because There are millions of dollars worth of equipment designed for the American System and these industries are not going to spend millions more because scientists tell them Metric is better So we have two systems to remember

Answer 4

Meters, Kilograms, and seconds
centimeters, grams, and seconds are Metric system of measurement. These are known as SI or international units of measurement.

Yard, foot, and "slug" are English measure. Pound is not mentioned because the pound is not considered a unit of mass.

Answer 5

i like the metric system