Help understanding metric units

Hi all



Firstly this is not a homework question. I just found myself wondering what certain numbers meant while at work and realised that i didnt actually know hence the posting.



I was hoping someone could help explain & confirm a couple of things about units.



1) Given the number 4.172 meters

I interpret this number at 4 whole meters

And the 0.172 part I interpret as a portion of a whole meter

My first question is this; is 0.172 (the fractional part) still in meters or is this in cm?



2) Assuming that 0.172 is in meter then to understand the 0.172m a little better I have done the following:-



1 ● 1 / 10 1 / 100 1 / 1000

0 ● 1 7 2



I have re-writtern this fractional part as 172/1000



My understanding at this point is that the denomniator (1000) represents my whole meter and the numerator represents the portion of the whole meter

Is this correct?





Attached is a PDF document where i have tried to understand more about units which i was hoping someone could look at.

Attached Files

Unit question.pdf (36.8 KB)

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