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Physics

Physics is the study of matter, energy, and their interaction. It involves making observations of the natural world and developing theories to explain those observations. The document also discusses measurement in physics including fundamental and derived units like meters, kilograms, seconds as well as prefixes used to indicate very large or small quantities.

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Louis Wilson
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36 views7 pages

Physics

Physics is the study of matter, energy, and their interaction. It involves making observations of the natural world and developing theories to explain those observations. The document also discusses measurement in physics including fundamental and derived units like meters, kilograms, seconds as well as prefixes used to indicate very large or small quantities.

Uploaded by

Louis Wilson
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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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PHYSICS NOTES

What is Physics?
Physics is the branch of science concerned with the study of
the nature of the properties of matter and energy and how
they interact. There are two parts to Physics.

Observation
Observations about the world around us.

Theory
The theories to explain the observations we see.
Measurement
Units and Fundamental Quantities
We need units to provide a standard when taking
measurements. For e.g. compare measuring the length of an
item using the standard unit (metres) to using your hand
spand.

SI Units
The International Standard of Units have been used in the
scientific community since 1960. The SI Units are seven
fundamental base quantities from which all other physical
units can be created from.
Base Quantity
Name Symbol
length l
mass m
time t
Temperature T
Electric Current I (capital i)
Amount of substance n
Luminous intensity lv
Base Unit
Name Symbol
metre m
kilogram kg
second s
Kelvin K
Ampere A
mole mol
candela cd

N.B. We never add ‘s’ to any symbol to make it plural. For


example 12 meters equals to 12 m and not 12 ms. This is
because ‘s’ represent seconds.
Derived Quantities/Units
These are quantities that have been created from
fundamental quantities. These derived quantities have in
turn derived units which were the units that resulted when 2
or more quantities were combined via on equation. The table
below shows some examples of derived units with their
respective derived units.

Derived Symbol Formula Derived Unit


Quantity
Area A Length x width m2

Volume V Length x width m3

x height
2
Density p Mass/Volume Kg/m
Velocity v Distance/Time m/s
Acceleration a Velocity m/s 2

Change/Time
Conversion Of Units
Length Mass
10mm = 1cm 1000mg = 1g
100cm = 1m 1000g = 1kg
1000m = 1km 1000000mg = 1kg
1000mm = 1m
100000cm = 1km
1000000mm = 1km

Time
60s = 1min 3600s = 1hr
60mins = 1hr 1440 mins = 24hrs
24hrs = 1day 86400s = 24 hrs
Prefixes
Prefixes are used to indicate very large or very small
amounts. It is very important to use the correct upper or
lowercase letters. For example ‘M’ uppercase means
multiply by a million while ‘m’ lowercase means divide by
1000.

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