General Physics (PHY 2130)

Lecture 2
Significant figures
Units
Graphs

http://www.physics.wayne.edu/~apetrov/PHY2130/
Chapter 1

WebAssign issues?

Lightning Review
Last lecture:
1. Introduction to physics and relevant math
Scientific notation, percentages, etc.
Units: meter, kilogram, second (definitions)
Review Problem: A firefighter attempts to measure the height of
the building by walking out a distance of 46.0 m from its base
and shining a flashlight beam towards its top. He finds that
when the beam is elevated at an angle of 39.0, the beam just
strikes the top of the building. Find the height of the building.

Problem Solving Strategy

Problem Solving Strategy

Given:
= 39.0
angle:
distance: d = 46.0m

Find:
Height=?
Fig. 1.7, p.14
Slide 13

Key idea: beam of light, building wall and distance from

the building to the firefighter form a right triangle!
Know: angle and one side, need to determine
another side. NOTE: tangent is defined via two sides!
height of building
,
dist .
height = dist . tan = (tan 39.0 )(46.0 m) = 37.3 m
tan =

Evaluate answer: 1. Makes sense (a 37 m building is Ok)

2. Units are correct.

1. Dimensions and Dimensional

Analysis
Dimensions

are basic types of quantities that

can be measured or computed. Examples are
length, time, mass, electric current, and
temperature.

unit is a standard amount of a dimensional

quantity. There is a need for a system of units.
SI units will be used throughout this class.

Dimensions
Dimension

quantity

denotes the physical nature of a

dimension of some quantity, say, Q is denoted [Q]

Dimensional

analysis is a technique to check

the correctness of an equation
Dimensions (length, mass, time, combinations)
can be treated as algebraic quantities
add, subtract, multiply, divide
quantities added/subtracted only if have same units
Both

sides of equation must have the same

dimensions

Dimensions

Dimensions for commonly used quantities

Length
Area
Volume
Velocity (speed)
Acceleration

Example

L
L2
L3
L/T
L/T2

m (SI)
m2 (SI)
m3 (SI)
m/s (SI)
m/s2 (SI)

of dimensional analysis

distance = velocity time

L
= (L/T) T

Example: Use dimensional analysis to determine how the period of a

pendulum depends on mass, the length of the pendulum, and the
acceleration due to gravity (here the units are distance/time2).
Mass of the pendulum [M]
Length of the pendulum [L]
Acceleration of gravity [L/T2]
The period of a pendulum is how long it takes to complete 1 swing; the
dimensions are time [T].

Solution: since the right dimension for the period is [T], we can get it
from the quantities above as

[L]
[length of the pendulum]
[ period] = [T ] =
=
2
[acceleration of gravity]
[L / T ]

Derived unit
A derived unit is composed of combinations of
base units.
Example: The SI unit of energy is the joule.
1 joule = 1 kg m2/sec2

Derived unit

Base units

2. Conversions
When

units are not consistent, you may

need to convert to appropriate ones
Units can be treated like algebraic
quantities that can cancel each other out
1 mile = 1609 m = 1.609 km
1m = 39.37 in = 3.281 ft

1 ft = 0.3048 m = 30.48 cm
1 in = 0.0254 m = 2.54 cm

Example 1. Scotch tape:

Example 2. Trip to Canada:

Legal freeway speed limit in Canada is 100 km/h.
What is it in miles/h?
100

km
km 1 mile
miles
= 100

62
h
h 1.609 km
h

Example 3. The density of air.

The density of air is 1.3 kg/m3. Change the units to slugs/ft3.
1 slug = 14.59 kg
1 m = 3.28 feet

kg 1 slug 1 m
3
3

1.3 3
=
2
.
5

10
slugs/ft

m 14.59 kg 3.28 feet

13

Prefixes
Prefixes

correspond to powers of 10
Each prefix has a specific name/abbreviation
Power

Prefix Abbrev.

1015
109
106
103
10-2
10-3
10-6
10-9

peta
giga
mega
kilo
centi
milli
micro
nano

P
G
M
k
P
m

Distance from Earth to nearest star

Mean radius of Earth
Length of a housefly
Size of living cells
Size of an atom

40 Pm
6 Mm
5 mm
10 m
0.1 nm

Example: An aspirin tablet contains 325 mg of acetylsalicylic acid.

Express this mass in grams.

Given:
m = 325 mg
Find:
m (grams)=?

Solution:
Recall that prefix milli implies 10-3, so

m = 325 mg = 325 103 g = 0.325 g

4. Uncertainty in Measurements
There

is uncertainty in every measurement,

this uncertainty carries over through the
calculations
need a technique to account for this uncertainty

We

will use rules for significant figures to

approximate the uncertainty in results of
calculations

Significant Figures
A

significant figure is one that is reliably known

All non-zero digits are significant
Zeros are significant when
between other non-zero digits
after the decimal point and another significant figure
can be clarified by using scientific notation

17400 = 1.74 10 4

3 significant figures

17400. = 1.7400 10 4

5 significant figures

17400.0 = 1.74000 10

6 significant figures

Operations with Significant Figures

Accuracy
Example:

-- number of significant figures

meter stick:

0.1 cm

When

multiplying or dividing, round the result

to the same accuracy as the least accurate
measurement
2 significant figures
Example:

rectangular plate: 4.5 cm by 7.3 cm

area: 32.85 cm2
33 cm2

When

adding or subtracting, round the result to

the smallest number of decimal places of any
term in the sum
Example: 135 m + 6.213 m = 141 m

Order of Magnitude
Approximation

based on a number of assumptions

may need to modify assumptions if more precise results

are needed
Question: McDonalds sells about 250 million packages of fries
every year. Placed back-to-back, how far would the fries reach?
Solution: There are approximately 30 fries/package, thus:
(30 fries/package)(250 . 106 packages)(3 in./fry) ~ 2 . 1010 in ~ 5 . 108 m,
which is greater then Earth-Moon distance (4 . 108 m)!

Order

of magnitude is the power of 10 that applies

Example: John has 3 apples, Jane has 5 apples.

Their numbers of apples are of the same order of magnitude

Important!
Order-of-magnitude estimates can be
helpful in determining whether the answer
you compute for a problem is reasonable.

Example: If you are asked to calculate the

weight of a car, and come up with an answer
of 10 lbs, you should re-check your calculation.

Graphs
Experimenters vary a quantity (the independent variable) and
measure another quantity (the dependent variable).

Dependent
variable here

Independent variable here

21

Be sure to label the axes with both the quantity and its unit.
For example:

Position
(meters)

Time (seconds)

22

Example: A nurse recorded the values shown in the table for

a patients temperature. Plot a graph of temperature versus
time and find (a) the patients temperature at noon, (b) the
slope of the graph, and (c) if you would expect the graph to
follow the same trend over the next 12 hours? Explain.

The given data:

Time

Decimal time

Temp (F)

10:00 AM

10.0

100.00

10:30 AM

10.5

100.45

11:00 AM

11.0

100.90

11:30 AM

11.5

101.35

12:45 PM

12.75

102.48

23

103
102.5

temp (F)

102
101.5
101
100.5
100
99.5
10

11

12

13

time (hours)
24

(a)

(b)

(c)

Reading from the graph: 101.8 F.

T2 T1 101.8 F 100.0 F
slope =
=
= 0.9 F/hour
t 2 t1
12.0 hr 10.0 hr

No.

25