Page 2 - Length

length

4.1 Comparing and measuring length

People need to be able to agree on how big things are. If this
cannot happen, it will be very difficult to build houses or roads
and many other things we need. This means we have to be able to
measure things.

1. Which of the following pairs of things is longer?
(a) the height of a classroom door or the length of a desk

(b) the width of a classroom door or the width of a chalkboard

(c) the height of your teacher or the length of your teacher’s
table
(d) the distance from your classroom door to the office or the
distance from the Grade 6 classroom door to the office

(e) the length of your hand or the length of your foot

(f) the distance from your chin to your ear or the distance
between your ears

2. What did you do to find the answers to question 1? Write
down your answers.

3. How can you find out what the length of this blue line is?
Discuss your idea with one or two classmates.

4. Senzo took a piece of string. He placed it carefully all along
the curved line above. He marked the end of the line on the
string and then measured the length of the string. Use Senzo’s
method to measure the length of the curved line.

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