Metric System - Prefix Conversion Wheel

This is a template for a conversion wheel that aides in the conversion between prefixes commonly used in metric measurements. I developed this a few years ago in order to help my students convert between measures such as meters to centimeters, Dekameters to millimeters, etc. The file consists of three wheels (circles) on one page that once printed on card stock will need to be cut out. Using a brad fastener (or similar) the three wheels are then attached at their respective centers thus allowing them to rotate. Students then rotate the tab on one wheel under their starting metric measure's appropriate prefix, and then rotate another wheel's tab under the desired metric prefix. A small window will display the appropriate factor of ten that the starting prefix must be multiplied by to equal the new desired prefix. It is a simple device to use and I have found that it has helped students learn the order of prefixes and their magnitudes more effectively than the ladder method.


Metric Prefix Conversion Wheel by Ramon-Andres Quevedo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.