A handful of paperclips is 5.2 grams. A handful of push pins is 500 centigrams. Which handful weighs more?

1 Answer
Jun 6, 2017

The handful of paperclips

Explanation:

You need to get both measurements into same units first. In this case, it is easier to get both values to grams, as one is already in grams, and the other has a prefix (centi), then grams. To convert centigrams to grams, you need to know what centi represents. You can look at the table below to know this:

www.thermopedia.com

In the table, you can see that centi means #10^-2#
Hence, 500 centigrams is the same as #500* 10^-2# grams
Which is #5# grams.

Hence, as 5.2 grams is more than 5 grams, the handful of paperclips weighs more than the pushpins.