Question

Meenal is $170\,cm$ tall. Find her height in metres.

Answer 1

Hint: Here this question belongs to the conversion topic, that is we have to convert the unit from one form to another. We are given the height of Meenal as $170\,cm$ and we have to express her height in metres. So, we will have to convert the unit centimetres to the unit metres. In the question, we have to find what number of metres correspond to $170$ centimetres.

Complete step by step answer:
The metres and centimetres are the units to measure the length of objects. A centimetre is abbreviated as cm and metre is abbreviated as m. A centimetre is a unit of length and it is used for measuring small lengths. Metre is also a unit of length and is used for measuring lengths of comparatively longer objects.
The given question requires us to convert the units of length. We have to convert $170\,cm$ into the metres unit.
We know that each metre of length consists of $100$ centimetres. So, $100$ centimetres of length is equivalent to one metre.
Let the number of metres that correspond to $170\,cm$ be x.
Then, to convert $170\,cm$ into metres, we follow unitary method where we first find that how many units of metres correspond to a single unit of centimetre and then multiply both sides of the equation by a suitable number so as to get the desired conversion of $170\,cm$.
So, $1$ metre $ = 100$ centimetres
Dividing both sides by hundred, we get,
$ \Rightarrow \dfrac{1}{{100}}\,m = \dfrac{{100}}{{100}}cm$
Cancelling common factors in numerator and denominator, we get,
$ \Rightarrow \dfrac{1}{{100}}\,m = 1cm$
So, we get the equivalent of $1cm$ as $\dfrac{1}{{100}}\,m$.
Now, multiplying both sides by $170$ to get the desired conversion, we get,
$ \Rightarrow \dfrac{1}{{100}} \times 170\,m = 1 \times 170\,cm$
Multiplying in the numerator and then simplifying the calculations, we get,
$ \Rightarrow \dfrac{{170}}{{100}}\,m = 170\,cm$
$ \Rightarrow 170\,cm = \dfrac{{17}}{{10}}\,m$
Now, we know that division by ten is relatively easier as we just have to count the power of ten and then introduce a decimal point before the same number of digits from the left side.
So, we get,
$ \Rightarrow 170\,cm = 1.7\,m$

Hence, $170\,cm$ is equivalent to $1.7\,m$.

Note:
We have different units for solid quantity, liquid quantity and gaseous quantity. Every quantity has a measurement unit from the low quantity to the high quantity. While converting the unit of a quantity from one form to another form we have a standard value. By multiplying or dividing we can convert the unit of the quantity. We have a different system of measurement of a quantity.