A feather is placed on a sensitive electronic balance. The display is shown. What is the mass of the feather in grams?
Question 1 Report
A feather is placed on a sensitive electronic balance. The display is shown.
What is the mass of the feather in grams?
Answer Details
The electronic balance displays 0.0082 kg. To convert kilograms to grams, multiply by 1000, since 1 kg = 1000 g. Therefore 0.0082 kg × 1000 = 8.2 g.
Unit conversion errors are the most common trap in this type of question. Dividing by 1000 instead of multiplying would give 0.0000082 g, which is far too small. Moving the decimal point the wrong number of places gives values like 0.082 g or 0.82 g. A useful check: grams should always be a larger number than kilograms for the same object, because a gram is a smaller unit.
When converting between metric mass units, remember the chain: 1 kg = 1000 g, 1 g = 1000 mg. Moving from a larger unit to a smaller unit means multiplying; moving from a smaller unit to a larger unit means dividing.
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