DID YOU KNOW???               

1.  Kilogram. This is used as a measure of weight (although technically it is a measure of 'mass'). A kilogram is equal to approximately 2.2 pounds.

2.  In the metric system, the units of measurement are multiplied by 10 or divided by 10 in order to produce larger or smaller units; this is indicated by using a prefix. For example, a decimeter is a tenth of a meter and a dekameter is 10 meters. For even larger or smaller units, one continues to divide or multiple by 10. For example, one can either say '1000 meters' or one can say 'a kilometer', as kilo means '1000' (which is 10 * 10 *10). The following table lists all of the prefixes.

3. Weight versus Mass. Although the kilogram is commonly used as a measure of weight, it is actually defined as a measure of mass. Weight is a measure of how heavy something is, whereas mass is a measure of the amount of matter. To illustrate, a 120 pound woman would weigh only 20 pounds on the moon (due to the moon having lower gravity than the earth), whereas a 50kg woman is 50kg on both the earth and the moon. In other words, her weight (how heavy she is) is less on the moon but her mass (how much matter she has) is unchanged. For everyday use, the difference between mass and weight is irrelevant, as everyone is together on the earth. However, for scientific calculations (e.g. objects being launched into space), the difference is important.