Measurement is a process of iterating or repeatedly translating a unit.

• Forms and employs composite units.
  
• Predicts, finds inverse relation between length of unit and distance measured. Shorter units result in higher counts of the same distance.
  
• Re-uses unit and can see this as an infinitely repeated process. Most obvious indicator occurs in situations where the number of units is less than the number of units available. Student "adds on" to the measure (e.g., accumulates 7 units, says 7, and then adds on 3 more units to arrive at a count of 10)
  
• Recognizes that units should tile the length but cannot conceive of re-using units. This means that the measure can never exceed the supply of units in hand.
  
• Uses units but leaves unequal distances between units. This indicates that measurement is conceived as a collection of countable objects. When constructing measurement tools, this is often manifested by unequal spacing of units.