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Measurement and Vectors: Key Concepts, Equations, and Problem Solving Strategies

This document provides an overview of key concepts in measurement and vectors, including: 1) Physical quantities are expressed using units of measurement and common systems include SI and English units. Significant figures indicate the precision of a measurement. 2) Vectors have both magnitude and direction, while scalars only have magnitude. Vectors can be represented by their x, y, z components and added using component addition. 3) Examples demonstrate conversions between units, rounding measurements, calculating vector magnitudes and distances, and adding vectors by their components. Practice problems at the end cover additional concepts like density, light speed, and vector directions and magnitudes.

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Kim Seungmin
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268 views6 pages

Measurement and Vectors: Key Concepts, Equations, and Problem Solving Strategies

This document provides an overview of key concepts in measurement and vectors, including: 1) Physical quantities are expressed using units of measurement and common systems include SI and English units. Significant figures indicate the precision of a measurement. 2) Vectors have both magnitude and direction, while scalars only have magnitude. Vectors can be represented by their x, y, z components and added using component addition. 3) Examples demonstrate conversions between units, rounding measurements, calculating vector magnitudes and distances, and adding vectors by their components. Practice problems at the end cover additional concepts like density, light speed, and vector directions and magnitudes.

Uploaded by

Kim Seungmin
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHAPTER 1

MEASUREMENT AND VECTORS

KEY CONCEPTS, EQUATIONS, AND PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES:

Concept Discussion
Physical Quantities, Units, and Conversion of • A model is used to represent a real
Units situation to enable analysis with less
complication.
• In Physics, the physical quantity is
expressed in terms of units of
measurement.
• There are two common system units, the
SI (Systéme International) and English
units (British engineering system).
• The following prefixes can be used for
units to designate a powers-of-ten factor
to a unit:

Reporting a measurement and Significant figures • Rounding off numbers:


a. Know which is the last digit to keep.
b. This last digit remains the same if the
next digit is less than 5.
c. Increase this last digit by 1 if then
next digit is 5 or more.
• Significant figures is the number of
meaningful digits in a reported value.
• Scientific notation reports a value in
terms of significant figures multiplied by
the appropriate power of ten.
Vectors • A vector is a physical quantity that has
both magnitude and direction (e.g,.
displacement, velocity, acceleration,
force).
• In contrast, scalar is a physical quantity
that can be represented by using a single
number (e.g., temperature, time, speed,
energy).
Components of a Vector and Vector addition • A vector can be written using its
components along the unit vectors, î, ĵ,
and ǩ parallel to the Cartesian axes x, y,
and z:
𝐴⃗ = 𝐴𝑥 î + 𝐴𝑦 ĵ + 𝐴𝑧 ǩ
• The vector magnitude /𝐴⃗/, calculated
from its components:
𝐴⃗ = √(𝐴𝑥)2 + (𝐴𝑦)2 + (𝐴𝑧)2
• The vector sum is the diagonal of the
parallelogram drawn from parallel pairs
of vectors.

(Vector addition by parallelogram


method)
• The vector sum is calculated using the
components of the added vectors:
𝐴⃗ = 𝐴𝑥 î + 𝐴𝑦 ĵ + 𝐴𝑧 ǩ
𝐵⃗⃗ = 𝐵𝑥 î + 𝐵𝑦 ĵ + 𝐵𝑧 ǩ
𝐶⃗ = (𝐴𝑥 + 𝐵𝑥 )î + (𝐴𝑥 + 𝐵𝑥 )ĵ + (𝐴𝑥 + 𝐵𝑥 )ǩ
EXAMPLES:

A. Physical Quantities, Units, and Conversion of Units

1. Convert 20 ft to m
Solution:
12 𝑖𝑛 2.54 𝑐𝑚 1𝑚
= 20 𝑓𝑡 ( )( )( )
1 𝑓𝑡 1 𝑖𝑛 100 𝑐𝑚
= 𝟔. 𝟎𝟗𝟔 𝒎

B. Reporting a measurement and Significant figures

1. Round off 24521.4513 to the nearest hundredths


Answer:
24521.45
2. How many significant figures are there in 6712.460
Answer:
7 significant figures

C. Vectors
1. After about 20 mins, a person walking briskly found himself 100.5 m north and 53.50 m west
from his original position. How far is he from his original position?
Solution:
The magnitude of the person’s distance from the original position can be calculated from the
components of his displacement vector.

𝑅⃗⃗ = 𝑅𝑥 î + 𝑅𝑦 ĵ

𝑅⃗⃗ = (−53.50 𝑚)î + (100.5 𝑚)ĵ


⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
|𝑅| = √(−53.50 𝑚)2 + (100.5 𝑚)2
⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
|𝑹| = 𝟏𝟏𝟑. 𝟗 𝒎
D. Components of a Vector and Vector addition
1. Add all the vectors and find its magnitude.
A. 5.5î + 9.2ĵ + 3.4ĵ
B. 3.8î + 6.1ĵ + 7.4ĵ
C. 7.3î + 2.7ĵ + 8.1ĵ
Solution:
➢ Summation of Vectors:
(5.5 + 3.8 + 7.3)î =16.6î
(9.2 + 6.1 + 2.7)ĵ =18ĵ

(3.4 + 7.4 + 8.1)ǩ = 𝟏𝟖. 𝟗ǩ

➢ Magnitude:

= √(16.6)î2 + (18)ĵ2 + (18.9)ǩ2

=√(275.56)î + (324)ĵ + (357.21)ǩ


= 𝟑𝟎. 𝟗
Exercises and Problems

Instruction: Answer the following questions below, show your solution.

PHYSICAL QUANTITIES, UNITS, CONVERSIONS OF UNITS

A. Counting how much something has.


1. How many seconds are there in a week?
2. How many kilometers are there in an inch?
3. How many square feet are there in a square kilometer?
B. The sun is about 9.3 x 107 miles away from the earth.
1. How far is the sun from the earth in meters?
2. How many minutes does it take for sunlight to reach the surface of the earth? (The speed
of light is about 3 x 108 m/s)

REPORTING A MEASUREMENT AND SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

C. Express the following in scientific notation:

1. 4351.57
2. 0.00023455
3. 334.2
4. 0.000000213
5. 340000
D. Estimate the following:
1. Average density of the planet earth, with mass (5.98 x 10 24 kg), and a mean radius (6.37 x
106 m).
2. Average time it would take for light to travel from the sun to the earth. The mean orbit
radius of the earth around the sun is 1.50 x 1011 m. The speed of light in a vacuum is
299792458 m/s. (Neglect the radius of the earth and the sun).
3. The age of the universe in days. The age of the universe is about 4 x 1017 s.
4. One light year in meters (the distance traveled by the light in one year). One year is 3.2 x
107 s.
MAGNITUDE AND DIRECTION OF VECTORS

E. A boy walked from his home, 5.25 m to the east then 6.2 m to the north. He continued
walking for a few minutes reaching 10.0 m towards the direction at 30° south of east.

COMPONENTS OF A VECTOR AND VECTOR ADDITION

F. Add all the vectors and find its magnitude.


1. 2.1î + 3.0ĵ + 1.1ǩ
2. 6.0î + 3.0ĵ
3. 2.1î - 3.0ĵ + 1.1ǩ

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