Decimeters and kilometers are part of the metric system of measurement. Conversion from one to the other is easy if you remember these essential facts. The order of the prefixes (or steps) is milli, centi, deci, base unit (such as meter, gram or liter), deka, hecto, kilo, each indicating a different power of 10. To the left of the base unit the numbers get smaller, to the right they increase. Thus, a deci- is 1/10, centi- is 1/100, and milli is 1/1000 of the base unit. Going the other way deka- is 10 base units, hecto- is 100 base units and kilo- is 1000 base units.
Instructions
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1
Determine whether the number is to the left or right of the base unit.
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2
Know that starting from the leftmost step each step to the right is ten times the previous step. A decimeter is one step to the left of a meter (the base unit), so it is 1/10 of a meter and a kilometer is three steps to the right of the base unit, so it is 1000 meters.
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3
Count the steps between decimeter and kilometer: there are five steps. So to convert decimeters to kilometers you divide the decimeters by 10,000. For example, to convert 30 decimeters to kilometers you divide 30 by 10,000 to get 0.003 kilometers.