2.  Standard and Non-Standard Units
Text Box: Standard units such as a square inch (and other measures such as a liter, gram, ounce, etc) are relatively permanent and culturally accepted. Therefore, they are used to enable communication over time and distance. However, we could use non-standard units. For example, we could measure area with a hexagonal unit because it tessellates a plane (i.e., it covers a surface and leave no gaps or overlaps). But this would be difficult because you can’t measure a square corner. Even when standard units are used, describing area can be difficult. For example, how does one describe the area of circle using square units? Some standard units are: Inches Feet Centimeters Quarts Pounds, etc.

Big Ideas in Measurement

Math Specialist Certificate Program
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