Factor-Label Method 7

... continued from earlier tonight
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But as soon as she went back to sleep, she slipped right back into the same dream.  Stacy was still there on the second floor.  However, now there weren't any chickens or celery, there were words.  A new group of words suddenly appeared on the top and bottom floor.

On the top were the words "meter" and "second."  On the bottom was only the word "second."

"So what cancels out," Stacy asked.

"Well," Stef started.  "It looks like 'second' is on both the top and the bottom, so they would cancel out."

"Let's see," Stacy said, and touched the word second on both the top and the bottom with her cane.  They both lit up and then disappeared, leaving only the word "meter" on top.

"So what does it mean when there's nothing left on the bottom?" Stefanie asked.

"It means that all you have left is meters, not 'meters per second' or something like that.  It's like fractions," Stacy continued.  "If you have a 3 on the top and on the bottom, they cancel each other out.  You're left with whatever's left."

Stef remembered that from algebra.  If you multiplied 4/3 times 3, the three on the bottom and the three by itself would cancel out, and you were left with just 4.

"And that works with words too," Stefanie asked.

"Yes, it's called the factor-label method.  You can figure a lot of things out with it."

"Let's say," Stacy continued, "you knew that you had 8 milliliters of water.  Let's say you also knew that the density of water was one gram per milliliter."

"What's density again?" Stefanie asked Stacy.

"It's how much of something fits into a certain space," Stacy answered.  It would later blow Stef's mind when she tried to figure out who had really answered this question in the dream, since Stacy was really about a mile, that is 1.6 kilometers away dreaming about Taylor Lautner at the time.

"So 8 milliliters," Stacy said, with the letters "mL" appearing on the top floor, "times one gram per milliliter..."  Again, the letter "g" appeared on the top floor, while the letters "mL" appeared on the bottom.  "... equals..."

"Wait, stop," Stefanie interrupted.  I can do this.  "The 'mL,' milliliters, on the top and bottom cancel out, leaving only the 'g' or grams on top."

"Yes, and..."

"And since 8 times 1 equals 8, that means that 8 milliliters of water weighs 8 grams."

"Exactly..." Stacy said with a smile.  "... well, it has a mass of 8 grams.  What it weighs, that's something different."  And with that, Stacy faded away.

"Wait, what do you mean?  What does that mean?"  But Stefanie pleaded for an explanation in vain.  Her attention was soon diverted, however, by a giant plate of arroz con pollos, which somehow seemed to surround her.  She found herself unable to resist, and started eating the humongous, elephant size pieces ferociously.