UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES I College of Engineering 1

Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN

09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

MODULE No. 1: UNITS AND MEASUREMENTS

OVERVIEW
The attention of this module focuses on concepts on units and measurements that are
commonly used in Physics.
This module explains the introductory part of this subject and importance of
understanding the basic units, its measurements and also the system of units. The important
thing about this module is to get you to think about how the units and measurements get
relevant in studying Physics for Electrical Engineers. However, students should have a good
knowledge in physics’ tackled during high school to understand easily the topics to be
discussed herein.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the module the students should be able to:
1. Know the fundamental physical quantities;
2. Know and differentiate the units of measurements;
3. Know and discuss the conventions to be followed in units;
4. Know the conversion of units and apply its concepts in problem solving.

Lesson 1

INTRODUCTION
The word physics comes from the Greek word meaning “nature”. Today physics
is treated as the most fundamental branch of science and finds numerous applications in
all walks of life. Physics deals with matter in relation to energy and the accurate
measurement of the same. Thus physics is inherently a science of measurement. The
fundamentals of physics form the basis for the study and the development of engineering
and technology.
Measurement consists of the comparison of an unknown quantity with a known
fixed quantity. The quantity used as the standard of measurement is called ‘unit’. For
example, a vegetable vendor weighs the vegetables in terms of units like kilogram.
 UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES I College of Engineering 2
Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

Fundamental physical quantities

Fundamental quantities are the quantities which cannot be expressed in terms
of anyother physical quantity. (eg) length, mass and time.
Derived quantities
Quantities that can be expressed in terms of fundamental quantities are
called derived quantities. (eg) area, volume, density.
SI Units
SI unit is the abbreviation for Systeme International d’ units and is the modern
form of metric system finally agreed upon at the eleventh International conference of
weights and measures, 1960. This system of units is now being adopted throughout the
world and will remain the primary system of units of measurement. SI system possesses
features that make it logically superior to any other system.
There are seven fundamental units (base units) and two supplementary units.
Seven Mechanics/Units of Measurements:
1. Meter – fundamental unit of distance/length. The distance a beam
of light travel in a perfect vacuum in 3.33564095 billionths of second.
2. Kilogram – fundamental unit of mass. The exact mass of a sample
of platinum iridium kept in the International Bureau of weights and measures.
3. Second – fundamental unit of time. The time taken for an atom of
cesium to oscillate through 9.1926 billion cycles.
4. Kelvin - fundamental unit of temperature. Equivalent to the
temperature increment of 0.003661 part of the thermodynamic temperature of
the triple point of the water.
5. Ampere – the fundamental unit of current. The amount of constant
charge carrier flow through two straight. Parallel, infinitely thin wires placed one
meter apart in a vacuum that results in a force between the conductors of 10
millionths of a Newton per linear meter.
6. Candela – the fundamental unit of luminous intensity. Equals 1.683
of a watt of radiant energy at frequency of 54 tera hertz in a solid angle of 1
steradian.
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES I College of Engineering 3
Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

7. Mole – fundamental unit of amount of substance. The quantity of

particles that has a mass in grams equal to the molecular weight of said
particle. Equal to avogadro’s number 6.02x10 ^23 particles.
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Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

Conventions to be followed in SI Units

1. When we write a unit in full, the first letter
should not be in capital letter.
(eg) metre and not as Metre kilogram and not
as Kilogram
2. The symbols of unit in the name of
scientist should be in upper case (capital) letter.
(eg) N for newton J for joule.
3. Only the singular
form of the unit is to be used.
(eg) km and not as kms
Kg and not as kgs
4. There should be no full stop at
the end of the abbreviations.
(eg) mm and not as mm.
kg and not as kg.
5. When temperature is expressed in
Kelvin, the degree sign is omitted.
(eg ) 273K not as 2730K
6. Only accepted symbols should be used.
(eg) ampere is represented
as 'A' and not 'amp' second is
represented as 's' and not 'sec'
7. Use of the solidus or slash is to be
avoided, but when used, not more than one solidus be
employed.
(eg) J/k.mol or
Jk.mol-1 but not J/k/mol
J kg-1K-1 but not J/kg/K
8. One letter space is always to be left
between the number and the symbol of the unit.
(eg) 2.3 m
and not as 2.3m
Kg m s-2 and

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Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

not kg ms-2
9. The numerical value of any physical
quantity should be expressed as p= a ´ 10m. Here
'a' is a number between 1 and 10 and 'm' is the
appropriate power of 10.
(eg) velocity of light c = 2.997 ´ 108 m s-1.

Multiples and Submultiples of units

In SI, some units are not of convenient size to measure certain quantities.

Hence multiples and submultiples of the base units are used in measurements.

Learning Exercise 1

a) In one paragraph, explain the relevance of studying Physics in the world of

Electrical Engineering.
b) What are the difference between SI and English Units?
c) Base on your experience, what are the common mistakes you’ve done after
reading some of the conventions to be followed in SI Units?

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 UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES I College of Engineering 6
Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

Lesson 2

MASS and WEIGHT

W eight will be the only gravitational force considered in our study

of mechanics. From the previous equation, we can develop an
approximate expression for finding the weight W of a particle having a
mass m 1 = m. If we assume the earth to be a non -rotating sphere of
constant density and having a mass m 2 = M c , then if r is the distance
between the earth's center and the particle, we have
𝑚 𝑀𝑐
W = G
𝑟2
Letting g = GM c /r 2

W = mg

where g = acceleration due to gravity. Since it depends on r. then the

weight of a body is not an absolute quantity. Instead, its magnitude is
determined from where the measurement was made.

Note:
The quantity that you get when
you weigh yourself on a balance is
just your MASS. To get your
W EIGHT, you need to multiply your
mass with the gravitational
acceleration value where your mass
was taken.

So when you are filling up the

personal data sheet form with the
item W eight (kg), you need not correct it, but you should know that it is
just your MASS that the form requires.

SYSTEMS OF UNITS
This is a review on the system of units, focusing mainly on SI
Units and U.S. Customary Units which are the systems recognized
worldwide.
SI Units. The International System of units, abbreviated SI after
the French "Système International d'Unites" is a modern version of the
metric system which has received worldwide recognition. The unit of
force, called a newt on (N), is equal to a force required to give 1 kilogram
of mass an acceleration of 1 m/s 2 (N = kg-m/s 2 ).

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Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

If the weight of a body located at the "standard location" is to be

determined in newtons, where g = 9.806 65 m/s 2 ; however,
for calculations, let us use the value g = 9.81 m/s 2 .
U.S. Customary. If the measurements arc made at the “standard
location," gravitational acceleration, g = 32.2 ft/s 2 .
Table 1 shows the SI and U.S. Customary Units for quantities of
mass, length, time and force.
Table 1.
ENGLISH
SI UNITS
UNITS
QUANTITY UNI SYMBOL UNIT SYMBOL
𝑙𝑏 ∙ 𝑠 2
Mass kilogram
T Kg slug ( )
𝑓𝑡
Length meter m foot ft
Time second s second sec
Force newton N or (𝑘𝑔𝑠2∙ 𝑚) pound lb

CONVERSION OF UNITS
It is very important to know how to convert units. Conversion can
be done within a system of unit or from one system to another.
Here are some of the conversion values:
1 ft = 12 in. (inches)
5280 ft = 1 mi (mile)
1000 lb = 1 kip (kilo-pound)
2000 lb = 1 ton

Table 2 shows the conversion from Foot Pound Second (FPS) or

the US Customary Units to SI Units.

Table 2.
Unit of Unit of
Quantity equals
Measurement Measurement
Force lb
(FPS) EQUAL (SI) 4.448 N
Mass slug 14.59 kg
(US Cu
Length ft 0.304 8 m

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 UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES I College of Engineering 8
Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

Example 1: Convert 5ft into meters?

Solution:
0.3048 𝑚
5𝑓𝑡 𝑥 =1.524 meters
1 𝑓𝑡

Example 2: Convert 5 kg into slugs?

Solution:
1 𝑠𝑙𝑢𝑔
5𝑘𝑔 𝑥 =0.3427 slug
14.59 𝑘𝑔

Example 3: Convert 5 miles into meters?

Solution:
5280 𝑓𝑡 0.3048 𝑚
5𝑚𝑖 𝑥 𝑥 =8046.72 meters
1 𝑚𝑖 1 𝑓𝑡

Example 4: Calculate the mass of the ball having a weight of 5N?

Solution: W e know that the givens are 5 N as the weight and the
constant gravitational g 9.81 m/s ^2. Thus, using the formula
𝑊 5 𝑘𝑔 − 𝑚/𝑠 2
𝑚= = = 0.51𝑘𝑔
𝑔 9.81 𝑚/𝑠 2

Example 5: Convert 5lbs in slugs?

Solution: W e know that the givens are 5 lbs as the weight and the
constant gravitational g 32.2 ft/s^2. Thus, using the formula
𝑊 5 𝑙𝑏𝑠
𝑚= = = 0.16 𝑠𝑙𝑢𝑔
𝑔 32.2 𝑓𝑡/𝑠 2

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 UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES I College of Engineering 9
Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS

This is to give emphasis on the International System of Units
because we will use this for the most of our discussion in this course.
The next part is the presentation on the rules of its use and some of the
terminologies related to engineering mechanics.
W hen a numerical quantity is either very large or very small, the
units used to define its size may be modified by using a prefix. Table 3
shows some of the prefixes.
Table 3.
Expanded Form Exponential Prefi SI
1 000 000 000 109
Form xgiga- SymbolG
1 000 000 106 meg M
1 000 103 kilo- k
a-
0.001 10–3 milli- m
0.000 001 10–6 micr μ
0.000 000 001 10–9 o-nano n
-

Learning Exercise 2

a)Determine the weight in Newtons of a car whose mass is 1800 kg.

Convert the mass of the car to slugs and then determine its weight in
pounds.

b)W hat is the weight in both Newtons and pounds of a 95 -kg beam?

c)Express the following measurements to the identified S.I. units.

Unit
Measurement
Prefix SI
2000 000 grams giga-
kilo-
milli-
1.95 gigameter mega-
nano-
micro-

Feedback
How was the discussion so far? Can you follow the introductory part of topics?
Congratulations my dear students. Complements, memory equivalents and coding
systems of computers are a little bit tricky but with your hard work and perseverance

PHYSICS FOR ENGINEERS: “With God, nothing is impossible.” I BGA

 UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES I College of Engineering 10
Engr. BLESS G. AMPUAN
09063763572 I [email protected] I bless.ampuan

in these topics pushed you to answer independently the learning exercises, arrived
with correct answers and learned from it. Believe on your own capability. Do not
hesitate to ask for other’s help. Be humble and be resourceful. Lastly, to easily absorb
this topic, just solve related problems as many as you can. Believe me or not. We
already experience this difficulty in this subject but look if where are we now? We
already grasp the fruit of our hardships.
How was the module? Did you will find everything useful and in order?
May the Lord will bless you always!
SUGGESTED READINGS
 BGineer TV
https://youtube.com/channel/UCEMl1xN8rlmnSx1VGWRgd1w
 The Organic Chemistry Tutor
https://youtu.be/b1t41Q3xRM8

REFERENCES/RESOURCES
 Minoru Watanabe, et al. contributor, Physics of Liquid Crystal, 2016
 Jearl Walker, et al contributor, Fundamentals of Physics, 2014

PHYSICS FOR ENGINEERS: “With God, nothing is impossible.” I BGA