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WEEK 1 Base and Derived Units

The document discusses the following topics in SI units and physics: 1) There are seven fundamental SI units used to measure physical quantities: meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela. All other units are derived by mathematically combining fundamental units. 2) Common derived units used in physics include newtons, joules, watts, meters/second, and volts. 3) Scientific notation is used to conveniently write very large or small numbers, placing the decimal point and adding placeholder zeros accordingly based on powers of 10. 4) Metric prefixes are used with standard metric units to describe ranges of varying physical sizes, based on factors of 10.

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944 views6 pages

WEEK 1 Base and Derived Units

The document discusses the following topics in SI units and physics: 1) There are seven fundamental SI units used to measure physical quantities: meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela. All other units are derived by mathematically combining fundamental units. 2) Common derived units used in physics include newtons, joules, watts, meters/second, and volts. 3) Scientific notation is used to conveniently write very large or small numbers, placing the decimal point and adding placeholder zeros accordingly based on powers of 10. 4) Metric prefixes are used with standard metric units to describe ranges of varying physical sizes, based on factors of 10.

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annmarie
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SARASWATI VIDYA NIKETAN

FORM 4
PHYSICS
DATE: 09-08-2020

SI Units: Fundamental and Derived Units

There are two major systems of units used in the world: SI units (acronym for the French Le Système
International d’Unités, also known as the metric system), and English units (also known as the imperial
system).

Some physical quantities are more fundamental than others. In physics, there are seven fundamental physical
quantities that are measured in base or physical fundamental units: length, mass, time, electric current
temperature, amount of substance, and luminous intensity. Units for other physical quantities (such as force,
speed, and electric charge) described by mathematically combining these seven base units. In this course, we
will mainly use five of these: length, mass, time, electric current and temperature. The units in which they are
measured are the meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela (Table 1). All other units are made
by mathematically combining the fundamental units. These are called derived units.

Quantity Name Symbol

Length Meter m

Mass Kilogram kg

Time Second s

Electric current Ampere A

Temperature Kelvin K

Amount of substance Mole mol

Luminous intensity Candela cd


Table 1: SI Base Units
Derived units are combinations of one or more of the fundamental units. Table 1.2 lists common derived units
used in physics.
SYMBOL FOR QUANTITY UNIT FOR THE QUANTITY SYMBOL FOR FORMULA
THE QUANTITY THE UNIT
LENGTH, MASS l length metre m
,TIME
A Area Square metre m2 LxB
3
V volume Cubic metre m
m mass kilogram kg
d or  density kilogram per metre kg m-3
cubed
t time second s
T period second s
f frequency Hertz (=second-1) Hz
FORCE AND F force newton N
PRESSURE
W Weight Newton N
M Moment of a force Newton metre Nm
p pressure Pascal (=Nm-2) Pa
MECHANICS s Distance, displacement Metre
AND MOTION W Work Joule (Newton metre) m
E Energy Joule J
EP Potential energy Joule J
EK Kinetic energy Joule J
P Power Watt(Joule per second) W (J s-1)
v or u Speed, initial velocity metre per second m s-1
c Speed of wave, light metre per second m s-1
a Acceleration metre s-2 m s-2
g Acceleration of free fall metre s-2 m s-2
g Gravitational field Newton per kilogram N kg-1
strength
p Momentum Kilogram metre s-1 kg ms-1
p Impulse Newton second Ns
HEAT AND EH Heat energy Joule
TEMPERATUR
E θ or T Temperature Degree Celsius, Kelvin 0
C, K
C Heat capacity Joule per kelvin J K-1
c Specific heat capacity Joule kg-1 K-1 J kg-1 K-1
L Latent heat Joule J
l Specific latent heat Joule per kilogram J kg-1
ELECTRICITY Q Electric charge coulomb C
I Electric current Ampere A
E Electromotive Volt (joule per V (J C-1)
force(e.m.f.) coulomb)
V Potential difference (p.d.) Volt V
R Resistance Ohm Ω

C Capacitance Farad F
W Electrical energy or Work Joule J

Using Scientific Notation with Physical Measurements


Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too large or small to be conveniently written as a
decimal. For example, consider the number 840,000,000,000,000. It’s a rather large number to write out. The
scientific notation for this number is 8.40 × 1014. Scientific notation follows this general format

x  x  10y.

In this format x is the value of the measurement with all placeholder zeros removed. In the example above, x is
8.4. The x is multiplied by a factor, 10y, which indicates the number of placeholder zeros in the measurement.
Placeholder zeros are those at the end of a number that is 10 or greater, and at the beginning of a decimal
number that is less than 1. In the example above, the factor is 10 14. This tells you that you should move the
decimal point 14 positions to the right, filling in placeholder zeros as you go. In this case, moving the decimal
point 14 places creates only 13 placeholder zeros, indicating that the actual measurement value is
840,000,000,000,000.

Numbers that are fractions can be indicated by scientific notation as well. Consider the number 0.0000045. Its
scientific notation is 4.5 × 10–6. Its scientific notation has the same format

x  x  10y.

Metric Prefixes

Physical objects or phenomena may vary widely. For example, the size of objects varies from something very
small (like an atom) to something very large (like a star). Yet the standard metric unit of length is the meter. So,
the metric system includes many prefixes that can be attached to a unit. Each prefix is based on factors of 10
(10, 100, 1,000, etc., as well as 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, etc.).

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