Bon jour, Grandpapa.

    This is my hundred-year-old grandfather centimeter.

    I know he looks old but he can measure ten times as fast as I can.

    You see, 1 centimeter is the same length as 10 millimeters.

    A paper clip thirty-two milimeters long is a little more than three centimeters long.

    I guess it's time for you to meet my godfather - the meter. He's a very important part of the system -- the metric system, that is.

    I warn you, he measures a thousand times what I do.

    I told you he was big.

    Oh, dear. I'm just too small to be of any use in talking about the meter.

    Excuse me a moment. I need to use a trick taught to me by Alice-- you know Alice through the Looking Glass, Alice in Wonderland.

    There, that's better.

© MC, i. 00-8-3, www.mathnstuff.com /math/spoken/here/2class/110/millic.htm