You've got most of the ones I use when I teach people about metric, so they
have benchmarks from which to visualize without converting to antiquated
units.

I most often use:

   - 1 kg = the mass of 1 L of water
   - 1 g = approximate mass of a paper clip
   - 2.5 g = exact mass of a US penny
   - 5 g = exact mass of a US nickel
   - 1 000 kg = 1 Mg = 1 tonne = mass of 1 000 L of water = mass of 1 m³ of
   water
   - 80 L = volume of the fuel tank of a Honda Pilot
   - 5 000 m² = 0.5 ha = roughly the area of an American football field
   - 435 m² = roughly the area of an NBA basketball court (a FIBA
   basketball court is exactly 420 m²)
   - 1 ha = almost exactly the area inside a 400 m track = the area of a
   square surrounding the base of the Statue of Liberty

Although you didn't ask for it, I use these for length/distance:

   - 1 mm = roughly the thickness of a US dime
   - 10 mm = roughly the width of one's pinky
   - 100 mm = roughly the width of one's hand
   - 150 mm = approximate length of US paper money
   - 2 m = the height of a door
   - 100 m = approximate length of a US football field* with only one end
   zone included*



*Zach Rodriguez*
http://twitter.com/#!/metricamerica
http://twitter.com/#!/zachrodriguez

On Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Paul Rittman <[email protected]> wrote:

> I like to keep a list of real-life examples of units, so when I come
> across metric dimensions, I can recall (or state for others) a suitable
> comparison point.  I have some decent ones for area (at least for someone
> who lives in southern California, United States), but am not comfortable
> with the examples for volume and weight.
>
> Do others here on this list have some good real-life examples?
>
> You can see what I have, on this pdf:
> http://www.paulrittman.com/Metric.pdf
>
>
>

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