Lecture 1: Units,

Physical Quantities
Chapter 1: University Physics
by Young and Freedman

Physics : Experimental
Science
requires measurement
use of numbers to describe result
Physical Quantity
- Any number that describe physical
phenomenon quantitatively
- measurable, calculable from other
measurable quantities
examples:
mass, weight, height, length, etc.

 Many laws of physics are expressed

as mathematical relationship among
physical quantities
To understand better the physical
quantities or phenomenon, we must
have some standard, and hence a
unit.
MKS
CGS
International System (or SI, form
Systeme International)

Map of Systems

rom zmescience.com

Length: meter
Units before
Yard (distance from the tip of the nose of
King of England to the end of
outstretched arm)
Foot (length of foot of King Louis XIV)
meter (1 / 10 000 000 of distance
between North Pole to the Equator,
passing through Paris)

distance travelled by light in

vacuum during a time of 1 / 299
792 458 s.

Some of the typical lengths

Time: seconds
1 1 1
defined before as
of
a

60 60
24
mean solar day
defined to be the 9 192 631 770
times the period of vibration of a
Cesium atom transitioning from
one energy state to another.

Some typical timescales

Laboratory housing Cesium atom

PAG-ASA: time keeper ng

Pilipinas

30 million years for it go off by a second!

Mass: Kg
defined to be a
mass of a certain
platinum-iridium
alloy cylinder kept
at International
Bureau of Weights
and Measures
(Sevres, France,
1887)

A photo of the alloy defining 1Kg

 bound to change
soon
Number of Silicon
atoms in some
sphere

Quantifying standards:
Prefixes

Unit consistency and

conversion
physical quantities can only be
added only if they have the same
unit
If not, conversion is necessary
a
(changing units)
1
b
logic behind conversion
If a = b, then
.aBut any quantities
1 cequal
c to itself. Hence,
multiplied by c1is
b

Examples
Convert 10.0 inches to mm
1 in = 2.540 cm

A certain area has an area of 50.0

m2. Convert it to yards2.
1 yd = 91.44 cm

TIPS:
1.Bring the units in your calculation.
2.convert by starting unit to fundamental unit
to final unit, whenever possible.

Uncertainties
Every measurements have
uncertainties
small uncertainty, more accurate
measurement
big uncertainty, less accurate
depends on measuring technique /
device used

Accuracy how close to the true

value
874.86 0.01 cm or 874.86(1) means
the value could be anywhere between
874.85 mm to 874.87 mm

Examples
The length of a certain rectangle is
given by
L l, while the width is
given by W w. What is the
uncertainty of the area? (Assume
that the uncertainties l and w are
very small such that the product lw
can be ignored.)

Pics of errors

Significant Figures

Because sometimes uncertainties are

not specified most of the times
Indicates reliability of the
measurement
Numbers to look at.

Some Guidelines Significant Figures

1. Non-zero digits are significant.

ex. 845 cm have 3 SF

2. Zeroes between nonzeros are significant.

ex. 809 008 cm have 6 SF

3. Integers have infinite values of SF.

ex. 2 goes like 2.000000.

4. In decimal form,
a. zeroes at the left of the first nonzero digit
are not significant.
ex. 0.0432 have 3 SF

b. the zeroes at the right of last nonzero digit

are significant.
ex. 0.00078900 have 5 SF

Operations involving different significant

figures

Scientific Notation
convenient way to write very large
and very small number in a
convenient way.
Allows us to preserve the significant
figures in the calculation
example
3 000 000 m = 3 x 106 m
0. 456090 s = 4.56090 x 10-1 s

DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
- check if the equation is dimensionally correct
- know the units or the dimension of a physical quantity

Most physical quantities can be expressed in

terms of fundamental dimensions [ ]:
[Length]
L
[Time]
T
[Mass]
M
[Current]
A
o
[Temperature]
[Amount]
N
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Example: Dimensional Analysis

Check
whether the following equations is

correct:

Use:

m = Mass
*substitute dimensions of the
physical quantities
*simplify the dimension of the LHS
and RHS of the equation
*check if the dimension is consistent
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Exercise: Dimensional Analysis

Check
whether the following equations is

correct:

LHS:
s = Length

RHS:
= Length

2.

LHS:

RHS:

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