Introduction To Si Units Worksheet printable pdf download

Introduction To Si Units Worksheet

Lesson 12: Introduction to SI Units

Lesson Overview

The purpose of this module is to review the relationship between the International System of Units and

the customary units for radiological measurement.

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

•

Describe the relationships between the International System of Units (SI Units) and the

customary units for radiological measurements.

•

Convert from SI to customary units and customary units to SI using a hand calculator.

Remember you can access the glossary in one of two ways throughout this course. You can select the

glossary button in the top right hand corner of each main content screen. In addition, on content

screens you can select underlined words to access their definitions in the online glossary. Selecting an

underlined word will take you directly to its definition in the glossary.

This lesson should take approximately 1 hour to complete.

Introduction to SI Units

The transition to measurement using the International System of Units, or SI, which stands for Systeme

International d’Unites, is required by Presidential Executive Order 12770 and Public Laws 94-168 and

100-418.

To ensure a smooth transition to SI units, international and domestic organizations have begun showing

information on packages and shipping documents in both the SI and customary units.

Many sources of information use customary units, such as the Curie, and others use SI units, such as the

Becquerel. Going from one measurement to another requires the use of a conversion factor, which

you’ll learn more about later in this lesson.

Before moving on to measurement conversions, let’s review the metric prefixes used to more easily

express measured values.

Metric Prefixes

Since very large and very small numbers are used in quantifying radioactive materials, it is necessary to

use numerical abbreviations to write the measured values in a practical way. The most common units

used in measurements to describe radiation characteristics are:

•

kilo (k) = 10 x 103

•

milli (m) = 10 x 10-3

•

micro (µ) = 10 x 10-6

•

nano (n) = 10 x 10-9

Introduction To Si Units Worksheet