Physical Quantity

A quantity that can be

measured and consists of a
numerical magnitude and a unit.

Physical Quantity

Base
Quantity
A unit that is not
combined with one
another or more
physical quantities.

Derived
Quantity
A combination of two
or more base
quantities.

Base Quantities
Base
Quantity
Length
Mass
Time
Temperature
Electrical
current

Symbol

l
m
t
T
I

SI Unit

Symbol for
the unit

Metre

Kilogram

kg

Second

Kelvin

ampere

Derived Quantity
A combination of two or more base quantities.
Physical
quantity

Symbol

Relation with base quantity

Formula

SI units

Volume

Length (m) X Length (m) X

Length(m)

V = l3

m3

Velocity

Displacement (m) / Time (s)

v = s/t

ms -1

Density

Mass (kg) / Volume (m3)

= m/V

kg m-3

Force

Mass (kg) X Acceleration (m s-2)

F = ma

Electric
charge

Current (ampere) X time (s)

Q = It

 The values of measurement in scientific

studies normally involve numbers that are
either very large or very small.
Such number are difficult to record or to
read off.
Speed of light:
=300 000 000 ms-1
The distance between the Sun and Mars
=227 800 000 000 m

Scientific Notation
The form in the scientific notation is

M 10
300000000 ms

0.000000000032m

Standard form

3 10
3.2 10

11

Prefixes
Prefixes are used in the metric system to
indicate fractions or multiples of SI units.
For measurement whose magnitude is
very large, prefixes such as kilo, Mega,
Giga and Tera are used.
For measurement whose magnitude is
very small, prefixes such as centi, milli,
micro, nano and pico are used.

Prefixes
Prefix

Symbol

Standard Form

Example

Tera-

1012

Terametre (Tm)

Giga-

109

Gigabyte (GB)

Mega-

106

Megawatt (MW)

kilo-

103

Kilometre (km)

hecto-

102

Hectometre (hm)

deka-

da

101

Dekametre (da m)

deci-

10-1

Decimetre (dm)

centi-

10-2

Centimetre (cm)

milli-

10-3

Milligram (mg)

micro-

10-6

Microwatt (W)

nano-

10-9

Nanosecond (ns)

pico-

10-12

Picometre (pm)

Complete the following:

Quantity
(a) 28 000 000 000
bytes

Standard
Form

Prefixes Form
Megabytes

(b)

3675 000g

kg

(c)

0.000 000 24s

(d) 0.000000031 8m

cm

2. Convert each of the following measurements

into metres, m.

(a)1.55 X 10 -1 Tm
(b)1.55 X 10-3 Mm
(c)1.55 X 10-3 dm
(d)1.55 X 104 m
(e)1.55 X 10 pm

Physical
Quantity

Scalar
Quantity
Physical quantity
that has magnitude
but no direction

Vector
Quantity
Physical quantity
that has magnitude
and direction

Examples:

Scalar
Quantity
Length
Mass
Time
temperature

Vector
Quantity
Displacement
Weight
Velocity
Acceleration

20N
30N

20N
30N

50N
Resultant force