Arithmetic Grade Six

Lesson One Hundred Seventy-six: Kilometers and Miles


Long distances can be measured in miles or in kilometers. (Naturally you could also measure long distances in millimeters, centimeters, and inches, but miles and kilometers are well-suited to longer distances.)

You may or may not know these facts, but: 


	5 kilometers equals about 3.1 miles

	10 kilometers equals about 6.2 miles

	25 kilometers equals about 15.5 miles
To convert from kilometers to miles or from miles to kilometers we use what is known as a conversion factor. The conversion factor used to convert from kilometers to miles is .62. What we do is we take a distance reported in kilometers and multiply it by .62 to get the same distance in miles. Here are a couple examples: 

	DISTANCE IN KILOMETERS   *  CONVERSION FACTOR   =  DISTANCE IN MILES
		20		 *	 .62		=	12.4
		6		 *	 .62		=	3.72
		12		 *	 .62		=	7.44
		100		 *	 .62		=	62.0

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