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2. Measuring Motion / Metric System

We begin our story with Lucy, Lenny, Lisa and Louie staring up at the sky while stretched out on Louie's lawn. "Wow! What a great day this is". Exclaimed Lisa " The grass is so soft and cool." "Yeah, wish we could learn about all we need to know here, " said Louie. "Well, you can you know. "" Like how Lisa ? Inquired Lenny. "Look around you. If I say nature what immediately comes into your mind?" "OK, Lisa that's easy : science." "Yeah, Lenny that's right." "But, Lisa how do we apply motion to trees, grass, buildings and the sky?" "Don't tell me you're confused now Lenny, "said Lucy "Remember what reference points are? Well we need to measure motion with regard to those objects so we understand how fast or how far we are going. Without units of measurement we would not know how far or how fast we walk, run, cycle." "Gee, I never thought of that." Said Louie. "Now I know!" Exclaimed Lenny. "We talked about the International System of Units in class today." Said Lenny. "Yeah, and it even has a funky French name : Systeme International, oolala!" Said Louie. "Ok Monsieur Louie, tell us about the metric system!" Shouted Lucy. "Oh it's simple Lucy, just think of a system based on the number ten with funny names for each unit." "Tell it like it is Louie, 'cause I've got no clue." Said Lenny. "You know how I learned this? Said Louie. I watched that big bike race they hold in France for three weeks in July. It's called the Tour de France and covers about 2200 miles of flat and mountain roads in the Alps and Pyrenees." Confused, Lenny asks "What's that got to do with metrics?" "All the distances are measured in kilometers. These cyclists are the best in the world, one is a famous American, Lance Armstrong, he's won five times in a row. He's like superman, even came back from battling cancer ." "Lets get to the metric system before the next tour," pleaded Lisa. "Ok, here's an example, Lance rode approximately 100 km. to win Stage 15 traveling from Bagneres-de-Bigorre to Luz-Ardiden (one of the hardest climbs in the race). So, when measuring long distances a kilometer ( kilo means one thousand) equals 1000 meters, so there would be 100,000 meters in 100 km; just multiply. Buildings like the Eiffel Tower are measured in meters." "Oh, it must be a building in France." Snidely commented Lucy. "Yes, said Louie, not far from a famous cobblestone boulevard in Paris called the Champs-Elysees." "And I bet Lance rode on that too", said Lisa. Louie exclaimed, "of course, the race finished there!" "Please!!!!!" Lucy cried. "Lets finish learning the metric system." "Ok " said Louie. "To measure objects smaller than a meter, we must use centimeters (centi means one hundredth). There are 100 centimeters in a meter. To measure objects smaller than a centimeter we use millimeters (milli means one thousandth). There are 1000 millimeters in a meter. Getting back to our example, Lance traveled 100 km or 100,000 meters or 10,000,000 centimeters or 10,000,000,000 millimeters. And guess what guys?" "Oh not more info!" Shouted Lucy, Lenny and Lisa. "Yes, the International System of Units describes weight too!" Exclaimed Louie. " No, no, no!!!! We're outta here, home looks great right about now! Bye Louie, see ya tomorrow." Shouted Lucy, Lenny and Lisa as they ran home at top speed.