Page 46 - MAT KS3 Y8 Cambridge CheckPoint

4 Length, mass and capacity

There are many situations in everyday life where you have to Key words
measure and weigh. If you want a bookshelf on your bedroom wall
you will need to measure the length of the shelf and its position Make sure you learn and
on the wall. If you are baking cakes you will need to weigh the understand these key words:
ingredients. units of measurement
metric units
It is very important that you measure carefully and accurately.
length
All the stories below are true. They made the headlines in mass
newspapers and on the television.
capacity
Imagine how the people that made these mistakes must have felt! area
volume
London 2012 Olympic swimming pool is too short! miles
kilometres
An Olympic-standard swimming pool was built in Portsmouth, UK,
to the Olympic length of 50 m. However, no room was allowed for
the touch-sensitive timing pads that are needed at each end of the
pool. The pool may be about 5 cm too short!

Cardiff half-marathon is 193 m too short!

In 2010, a half-marathon took place in Cardiff, UK. The official
length of a half-marathon is 21.0975 km and the course had been
measured accurately. However, at the last minute, the course had
to be changed as there was an obstruction on the route. The length
of the new route wasn’t checked before the race and it
was only found out afterwards that it was too short!

The Hubble Space Telescope’s vision is blurred!

The Hubble Space Telescope was put into orbit in 1990. At first
everything seemed to be going well. However, the first picture that
was taken was blurred. As more pictures were taken, the scientists
realised that something was wrong. They found out that the main
mirror was the wrong shape and so it could not focus properly.
They discovered that when the mirror was being made, a speck of
dust had affected a measuring rod and so the measurements were
slightly wrong. Astronauts carried out five spacewalks to fix the
problem. Since then the pictures sent back from the telescope have been clear, crisp and amazing!
In this unit you will learn how to choose suitable units of measurement to estimate, measure, calculate
and solve problems. You will also learn about the connection between kilometres and miles.

44 4 Length, mass and capacity