Units and Dimension

Prepared by
Dr. Ahmed Abdelbaset
1. Physical quantities

Physical quantities

Fundamental quantities
They are not expressed in terms of other physical quantities.

Derived quantities
They are defined in terms of the fundamental physical quantities, these
derived.
2. Units Lengths
meters
Amount of m Mass
substance
mole kilogram
mol kg

International
system of units
Luminous Time
intensity SI second
candle
cd s

Electric current Temperature

Ampere Kelvin
A K
3. Converting units

Example : Example :
Convert 20 min to seconds. Convert 1800 s to minutes.
conversion equation is conversion equation is
𝟏
𝟏 𝐦𝐢𝐧 = 𝟔𝟎 𝒔 𝟏𝒔 = 𝐦𝐢𝐧
𝟔𝟎
𝟐𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐧 = 𝟐𝟎 × 𝟔𝟎 𝟏𝟖𝟎𝟎
𝟏𝟖𝟎𝟎 𝐬 = 𝐦𝐢𝐧
𝟔𝟎
= 𝟏𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐬 = 𝟑𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐧
3. Converting units

Example : Abbreviation Prefix Power

Convert 5 μm to meters. 𝟏𝟎−𝟗
n nano-
conversion equation is
μ micro- 𝟏𝟎−𝟔

𝟏 μm = 𝟏𝟎−𝟔 𝐦 m milli- 𝟏𝟎−𝟑

k kilo- 𝟏𝟎𝟑
−𝟔
𝟓 μm = 𝟓 × 𝟏𝟎 𝐦 𝟏𝟎𝟔
M mega-

G giga- 𝟏𝟎𝟗
3. Converting units

Example : Abbreviation Prefix Power

Convert 50 km to m. 𝟏𝟎−𝟗
n nano-
conversion equation is
μ micro- 𝟏𝟎−𝟔

𝟏 km = 𝟏𝟎𝟑 𝐦 m milli- 𝟏𝟎−𝟑

k kilo- 𝟏𝟎𝟑
𝟑
𝟓𝟎 km = 𝟓𝟎 × 𝟏𝟎 𝐦 𝟏𝟎𝟔
M mega-

G giga- 𝟏𝟎𝟗
3. Converting units
Example: 1.1
On the side board of the road, the maximum average speed 𝑠 was found as 90
𝑘𝑚 𝑚
, convert this value to speed with units.
ℎ 𝑠

Solution
𝑘𝑚
𝑠 = 90
ℎ𝑟
103 𝑚 𝑚
= 90 = 25
3600 𝑠 𝑠
3. Converting units
Example: 1.2
𝑔
How much mercury density is 𝜌 in SI unit system, if it is equal to 13.6 ?
𝑐𝑚 3

Solution
𝑔
𝜌 = 13.6 3
𝑐𝑚

10 −3 𝑘𝑔 4 𝑘𝑔
= 13.6 = 1.36 × 10 3
10 −2 3 𝑚3 𝑚
3. Dimensional theory

The dimensions of the fundamental classical mechanics quantities.

Mass [M]

Length [L]

Time [T]
3. Dimensional theory

The importance of the dimensional theory is in

Validation of physical laws.

Easily derive some physical laws.

Derive the units of the physical constants.

3. Dimensional theory
Physical Quantity Dimensions
𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝑴
𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝝆 = 𝝆 = 𝟑 = 𝑴𝑳−𝟑
𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝑳
𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑳
𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒗 = 𝒗 = = 𝑳𝑻−𝟏
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑻
𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑳𝑻−𝟏
𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂 = 𝒂 = = 𝑳𝑻−𝟐
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑻
𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝑭 = 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒔 . 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑭 = 𝑴 × 𝑳𝑻−𝟐 = 𝑴𝑳𝑻−𝟐

𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝑾 = 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 . 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑾 = 𝑴𝑳𝑻−𝟐 × 𝑳 = 𝑴𝑳𝟐 𝑻−𝟐

𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝑴 × 𝑳𝟐 𝑻−𝟐
𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝑷 = 𝑷 = = 𝑴𝑳𝟐 𝑻−𝟑
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑻
3. Dimensional theory
Example: 1.3
𝐿
Verify the validity of the simple pendulum formula: 𝑇 = 2𝜋 ,where T is the
𝑔

periodic time, L is the length of the pendulum thread, and g is the gravitational
acceleration.
Solution
The left side dimension of the equation: [𝑇]

𝐿
The right-side dimension of the equation: = [𝑇]
𝐿𝑇 2

So, this equation is dimensionally homogeneous. It is correct.