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Physical Quantities Units

Here are the results with the correct number of significant figures: a) 67.1 b) 1.933 c) 4.1 d) 49 e) 2.1 x 101

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94 views

Physical Quantities Units

Here are the results with the correct number of significant figures: a) 67.1 b) 1.933 c) 4.1 d) 49 e) 2.1 x 101

Uploaded by

muyideen abdulkareem
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Physical Quantities & Units

Lecture 1
General Physics 1
MF006/FAS1053
PHYSICAL QUANTITIES & UNITS

Base/Derived
Quantities

SI Units

Errors

Significant
Figures

Scalars and
Vectors
PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
Quantitative versus Qualitative
 Most observation in physics are quantitative
 Descriptive observations (or qualitative) are usually imprecise

Qualitative Observations Quantitative Observations


How do you measure What can be measured with the
artistic beauty? instruments on an aeroplane?
PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
A physical quantity is one that can be measured and consists
of a magnitude and unit.

SI units are common today Measuring length

70
km/h

Vehicles
Not

Exceeding
2.0 m 1500 kg In
 Unladen
Weight
PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
Are classified into two types:
Derive Quantities
 Base Quantities
A derived quantity is a quantity which
 Derived Quantities
can be defined in terms of other
Base Quantities physical quantities.
A base quantity is a quantity which
cannot be defined in terms of other Derived quantity is like
physical quantities. the house that was build up
from a collection of bricks
(basic quantity)
Base quantity is like the brick –
the basic building block of a house
PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
 The international system
SI UNITS of units commonly used in
science and engineering is
the Systeme International
d’Unites, or SI in short.

 SI Units – International System of Units  The SI system of units


defines the base units for
seven base quantities.

Base Quantities Name of Unit Symbol of Unit


length metre m
mass kilogram kg
time second s
electric current ampere A
temperature kelvin K
amount of substance mole mol
luminous intensity candela cd
SI UNITS
SI UNITS

Derived Relation with Base and Special


Unit
Quantity Derived Quantities Name
area length × width m2
volume length × width × m3
height
density mass  volume kg m-3
speed distance  time m s-1
acceleration change in velocity  m s-2
time
force mass × acceleration kg m s-2 newton
(N)
pressure force  area kg m-1 s-2 pascal
(Pa)
work force × distance kg m2 s-2 joule (J)

power work  time kg m2 s-3 watt (W)


PREFIXES
• Prefixes simplify the writing of very large or very small
quantities
Rewrite the following quantities using suitable prefixes:
(a) 5 000 000 J 5.0 MJ

(b) 48 000 g 48.0 kg

(c) 0.0009 s

(d) 485 000 N

(e) 0.000 007 m


CONVERSION OF UNITS

Given 1ft = 0.3048 m ; 1 mile = 1609 m

Convert:
(a) 20.0 ft into m = 20 x 0.3048

(b) 4.50 ft to cm

(c) 60.0 mi/h to m/s = 60 x 1609/(60x60)


CONVERSION OF UNITS
Rewrite the following measurement in the units suggested:

(a) 5.4 km in cm (d) 16 GB in MB 16000 MB


540,000 cm

(b) 7.6 ms in μs (e) 100 cm3 in m3

(c) 2 TB in GB 2000 GB (f) 15 m/s in km/h


ERRORS
Accurate Measurement
No measurement is perfectly accurate
Some error is inevitable even with high precision instruments.
Two main types of errors
- Random errors
- Systematic errors
RANDOM ERRORS
Random errors occur in all measurements.
Arise when observers estimate the last figure of an instrument reading.
Also contributed by background noise or mechanical vibrations in the
laboratory.
Called random errors because they are unpredictable
Minimize such errors by averaging (taking mean value) a large number of
readings.
Freak results discarded before averaging.
SYSTEMATIC ERRORS
Systematic errors are not random but constant.
Cause an experimenter to consistently underestimate or overestimate a
reading.
They due to the equipment being used – e.g. a ruler with zero error.
may be due to environmental factors – e.g. weather conditions on a
particular day.
Cannot be reduced by averaging, but they can be eliminated if the
sources of the errors are known.
Parallax error which results from user reading an instrument at an angle
resulting in a reading which is consistently high or consistently low.
ACCURACY
• Accuracy describes the nearness of a measurement to the standard or
true value.

• I.e., a highly accurate measuring device will provide measurements very


close to the standard, true or known values.

• Example: In target shooting a high score indicates the nearness to the


bull's eye and is a measure of the shooter's accuracy.
PRECISION
• Precision is the degree to which several measurements provide answers
very close to each other.

• It is an indicator of the scatter in the data.

• The lesser the scatter, higher the precision.


ACCURACY vs PRECISION
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
 Since measuring instruments always have a limit of precision and since
statistical errors are often present, every measurement in physics has a
limit on how many digits in the result are known with certainty.

 The digits that are known with certainty are called significant figures.

 Whenever you work a problem in physics, you must use the correct
number of significant figures to express the results of both your
measurement and your calculation.
Significant
Measurement Remarks
Figures

3.1 cm 2

4.36 m/s 3

5.003 mm 4 Both zeros are significant

0.00875 kg 3 Zeros simply locate the decimal

Same quantity as previous


8.75 x 10⁻³ kg 3
example
Ambiguous – can’t tell whether
4500 ft 2,3 or 4 zeros measured or only
showing decimal.
How many significant figures?

a. 0294.1 f. 5050.0

b. 4032.090 g. 807000

c. 0.003048 h. 1.0200 x 105

d. 34.6209 i. 0.0044

e. 1.40 x 103 j. 0.0560


ADDITION OR SUBTRACTION
• When adding or subtracting measured quantities, the precision of the
answer can only be as great as the least precise (decimal place) term in
the sum or difference.

• All digits up to this limit of precision are significant.

3.76 cm
+ 46.855 cm
+ 0.2 cm The least precise quantity is 0.2, so our answer is known only to
50.815 cm the nearest 0.1 cm. The correct answer is 50.8 cm.
MULTIPLYING & DIVIDING
• When multiplying or dividing measured quantities, the number of
significant digits in the result can only be as great as the least number of
significant figures in any factor in the calculation.

• Eg: (31.3 cm)(28 cm)(51.85 cm) = 45,441.34 cm3

• But, the significant figures rule allows us to keep only two digits, we are
limited by the two significant figures in 28 cm.

• Therefore, the answer is stated as: 45,000 cm3, or 4.5x104 cm3.


EXAMPLES

 What are the results of the following calculation?


a) 3.12 – 3.45 + 67.354 = ?

b) 0.2 + 3.75 - 2.117 = ?

c) 3.45 x 260 x 0.0365 = ?

d) 345 / 6.50 x 7.90 = ?

e) [(9.714 x 105)(2.1482 x 10-9)] / [(4.1212)(3.7792 x10-5)]= ?

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