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How many cups are in 1 gallon?

16 cups

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How many teaspoons are in 1 cup?

48 teaspoons

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Use mixed units of measurement in the u.s. system

Performing arithmetic operations on measurements with mixed units of measures requires care. Be sure to add or subtract like units.

Charlie bought three steaks for a barbecue. Their weights were 14 ounces, 1 pound 2 ounces, and 1 pound 6 ounces. How many total pounds of steak did he buy?

A photograph of meat being cooked on a charcoal grill.
(credit: Helen Penjam, Flickr)

Solution

We will add the weights of the steaks to find the total weight of the steaks.

Add the ounces. Then add the pounds. .
Convert 22 ounces to pounds and ounces.
Add the pounds. 2 pounds + 1 pound, 6 ounces 3 pounds, 6 ounces
Charlie bought 3 pounds 6 ounces of steak.

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Laura gave birth to triplets weighing 3 pounds 12 ounces, 3 pounds 3 ounces, and 2 pounds 9 ounces. What was the total birth weight of the three babies?

9 lbs. 8 oz

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Seymour cut two pieces of crown molding for his family room that were 8 feet 7 inches and 12 feet 11 inches. What was the total length of the molding?

21 ft. 6 in.

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Anthony bought four planks of wood that were each 6 feet 4 inches long. If the four planks are placed end-to-end, what is the total length of the wood?

The image shows 4 planks of wood placed end-to-end horizontally. Each plank is labeled 6 feet 4 inches. A line starts at the left of the first plank and runs horizontally to the right of the fourth plank. The line is labeled with the letter l to represent length.

Solution

We will multiply the length of one plank by 4 to find the total length.

Multiply the inches and then the feet. .
Convert 16 inches to feet. 24 feet + 1 foot 4 inches
Add the feet. 25 feet 4 inches
Anthony bought 25 feet 4 inches of wood.

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Henri wants to triple his spaghetti sauce recipe, which calls for 1 pound 8 ounces of ground turkey. How many pounds of ground turkey will he need?

4 lbs. 8 oz.

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Joellen wants to double a solution of 5 gallons 3 quarts. How many gallons of solution will she have in all?

11 gal. 2 qts.

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Make unit conversions in the metric system

In the metric system, units are related by powers of 10 . The root words of their names reflect this relation. For example, the basic unit for measuring length is a meter. One kilometer is 1000 meters; the prefix kilo- means thousand. One centimeter is 1 100 of a meter, because the prefix centi- means one one-hundredth (just like one cent is 1 100 of one dollar).

The equivalencies of measurements in the metric system are shown in [link] . The common abbreviations for each measurement are given in parentheses.

Metric Measurements
Length Mass Volume/Capacity
1 kilometer (km) = 1000 m
1 hectometer (hm) = 100 m
1 dekameter (dam) = 10 m
1 meter (m) = 1 m
1 decimeter (dm) = 0.1 m
1 centimeter (cm) = 0.01 m
1 millimeter (mm) = 0.001 m
1 kilogram (kg) = 1000 g
1 hectogram (hg) = 100 g
1 dekagram (dag) = 10 g
1 gram (g) = 1 g
1 decigram (dg) = 0.1 g
1 centigram (cg) = 0.01 g
1 milligram (mg) = 0.001 g
1 kiloliter (kL) = 1000 L
1 hectoliter (hL) = 100 L
1 dekaliter (daL) = 10 L
1 liter (L) = 1 L
1 deciliter (dL) = 0.1 L
1 centiliter (cL) = 0.01 L
1 milliliter (mL) = 0.001 L
1 meter = 100 centimeters
1 meter = 1000 millimeters
1 gram = 100 centigrams
1 gram = 1000 milligrams
1 liter = 100 centiliters
1 liter = 1000 milliliters

To make conversions in the metric system, we will use the same technique we did in the U.S. system. Using the identity property of multiplication, we will multiply by a conversion factor of one to get to the correct units.

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Source:  OpenStax, Prealgebra. OpenStax CNX. Jul 15, 2016 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11756/1.9
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