Year 5 New Resources: Measurement
We have been using the metric system for measurements in the UK since we began to switch over in 1965 – well over 50 years ago. However, some people still use the old imperial system of measurements and some members of the Government are very keen on it, so children are expected to know how to convert imperial measurements to metric.
The metric system isn’t new, it is based on the metre that was first used in France in the 1790s and the UK Parliament talked about changing to the metric system in this country as early as 1818.
The old imperial system evolved from the many units of measurements introduced from the times of the Romans, Celts, Anglo-Saxons and into the Middle Ages.
The value of each imperial measurement varied depending on many things including time, place, type of trade etc., so it was difficult to know exactly what each measurement represented. It wasn’t until 1824 that the exact value for each imperial measurement was formalised, meaning that from then on everyone knew the exact length of an inch, foot, mile etc.
We have just published two new sets of worksheets which cover converting feet and inches to centimetres and metres. It’s not easy but no doubt useful to be able to carry out a rough conversion.
We have also just published 3 sets of worksheets on measuring the capacity of open boxes. The length, breadth and height are given in centimetres and children need to work out the number of centimetre cubes that will fit in the boxes.
The link between centimetres and litres would be a good discussion point whilst using these pages, as a one centimetre cube equals 0.001 litres (one thousandth of a litre).