I apparently can't do 6th grade science.
September 29, 2010 3:36 PM   Subscribe

My daughter's science homework is driving me crazy. It's one of these crossword puzzle deals. She's filled the entire thing out save one answer, and as I'm 30 I'm somewhat shamed that I cannot seem to answer a 6th grade science question. Maybe you can help.

The CROSSWORD PUZZLE in question is entitled, "METRIC MEASUREMENT" and is all about.. metric measurement.

11 Across reads, "measuring device to use for cubed shape solids."

Um, what? That doesn't make sense to me on a number of levels - measuring what? Surface area? Volume? Density? What?

Worse, I've double-checked her other answers and as far as I can tell they're all correct, which means that this is an ELEVEN LETTER WORD(S) in the following format:

M _ _ _ _ _ R _ _ E _

I've even tried plugging that into a couple of the crossword tools online, to no success.

I feel like this is something stupid and I'm just not seeing it. Any clues, hive mind?
posted by kbanas to Science & Nature (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: metric ruler
posted by rhizome at 3:37 PM on September 29, 2010


Best answer: I came to say METRIC RULER as well.
posted by 0xFCAF at 3:38 PM on September 29, 2010


Response by poster: God dammit.
posted by kbanas at 3:38 PM on September 29, 2010 [33 favorites]


Don't feel shamed. That question has nothing to do with actually knowing science. Vocabulary? Sort of.

I teach science and these kinds of busy work assignments drive me crazy. I hope your child has actually been measuring things with a "metric ruler", calculating volumes and such.
posted by jz at 5:21 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is why proper crosswords specify the number of words and their length. "Measuring device to use for cubed shape solids (6,5)".
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:35 PM on September 29, 2010


I've used measuring tapes, calipers, micrometers, rotating disk tools, laser range-finders, even archimedes displacement densitometers for this purpose, but I'd have never guessed "metric ruler". That's weirdly specific.
posted by bonehead at 6:41 AM on September 30, 2010


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