How many grams are in 74.0 mg?

1 Answer
Aug 28, 2016

"mg"mg stands for milligram.

  • "m"m is the prefix "milli", which means 10^(-3)103, a number less than 11.
  • "1 mg"1 mg is therefore literally smaller than "1 g"1 g.

So, there are 10^(-3)103 "g"g in "1 mg"1 mg, or 10^3103 "mg"mg in "1 g"1 g. This makes sense because you need more of something small to equal something larger.

Due to the equivalences given above, we can use one of them as a conversion factor.

74.0 cancel("mg") xx "1 g"/(10^3 cancel("mg"))

= 74.0 cancel("mg") xx (10^(-3) "g")/(1 cancel("mg"))

= color(blue)("0.074 g")

You don't have to do it both ways, but both are provided so you can choose.