Lesson

1 Units of Measurement

Physicists, like other scientists, make observations and ask basic questions.
For example, how big is an object? How much mass does it have? How far did it
travel? To answer these questions, they make measurements with various
instruments (e.g., meter stick, balance, stopwatch, etc.).

The measurements of physical quantities are expressed in terms of units,

which are standardized values. For example, the length of a race, which is a
physical quantity, can be expressed in meters (for sprinters) or kilometers (for long
distance runners). Without standardized units, it would be extremely difficult for
scientists to express and compare measured values in a meaningful way.

What’s In

How many units do we have for 1 foot or 12 inches ruler?

How many millimeters (mm), centimeters (cm), inches (in), foot (ft)?

Classify the given quantities as Metric System or British System of

measurement: 5 yards of cloth, 10 kg of banana, 8 hours watching TV, 8 inches
shoes, 30 miles walking and 70 km/h speed of Typhoon Hanna.
 What’s New

Physical Quantities
All physical quantities in the International System of Units (SI) are expressed
in terms of combinations of seven fundamental physical units, which are units for:
length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, amount of a substance, and
luminous intensity.

SI Units: Fundamental and Derived Units

There are two major systems of units used in the world: SI units (acronym
for the French Le Système International d’Unités, also known as the metric
system), and English units (also known as the imperial system). English units were
historically used in nations once ruled by the British Empire. Today, the United
States is the only country that still uses English units extensively. Virtually every
other country in the world now uses the metric system, which is the standard
system agreed upon by scientists and mathematicians.

Some physical quantities are more fundamental than others. In physics,

there are seven fundamental physical quantities that are measured in base or
physical fundamental units: length, mass, time, electric current temperature,
amount of substance, and luminous intensity. Units for other physical quantities
(such as force, speed, and electric charge) described by mathematically combining
these seven base units. In this course, we will mainly use five of these: length,
mass, time, electric current and temperature. The units in which they are
measured are the meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela. All
other units are made by mathematically combining the fundamental units. These
are called derived units.

Table 1. SI Base Units

Quantity Name Symbol

Length Meter m
Mass Kilogram kg
Time Second s
Electric current Ampere A
Temperature Kelvin K
Amount of substance Mole mol
Luminous intensity Candela cd
Metric Prefixes
Physical objects or phenomena may vary widely. For example, the size of objects
varies from something very small (like an atom) to something very large (like a star).
Yet the standard metric unit of length is the meter. So, the metric system includes
many prefixes that can be attached to a unit. Each prefix is based on factors of 10
(10, 100, 1,000, etc., as well as 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, etc.). 

Table 2  Metric Prefixes and symbols used to denote the different various factors of 10 in the
metric system
Example Example Example Example
Prefix Symbol Value
Name Symbol Value Description

Distance
18 18
Exa E 10 Exameter Em 10  m light travels
in a century

30 million
Peta P 1015 Petasecond Ps 1015 s
years

Powerful
Tera T 1012 Terawatt TW 1012 W
laser output

A
9 9
Giga G 10 Gigahertz GHz 10  Hz microwave
frequency

High
Mega M 106 Megacurie MCi 106 Ci
radioactivity

About 6/10
Kilo k 103 Kilometer Km 103 m
mile

hector h 102 Hectoliter hL 102 L 26 gallons

Teaspoon of
Deka da 101 Dekagram Dag 101 g
butter

____ ____ 100 (=1)

Less than
Deci d 10–1 Deciliter dL 10–1 L
half a soda

Fingertip
Centi c 10–2 Centimeter Cm 10–2 m
thickness

Mili m 10–3 Millimeter mm 10–3 m Flea at its

 Example Example Example Example
Prefix Symbol Value
Name Symbol Value Description

shoulder

Detail in
Micro µ 10–6 Micrometer µm 10–6 m
microscope

Small speck
Nano n 10–9 Nanogram ng 10–9 g
of dust

Small
–12 –12
Pico p 10 Picofarad pm 10  F capacitor in
radio

Size of a
Femto f 10–15 Femtometer fm 10–15 m
proton

Time light
takes to
Atto a 10–18 Attosecond as 10–18 s
cross an
atom

The metric system is convenient because conversions between metric units can be
done simply by moving the decimal place of a number. This is because the metric
prefixes are sequential powers of 10. There are 100 centimeters in a meter, 1000
meters in a kilometer, and so on. In nonmetric systems, such as U.S. customary
units, the relationships are less simple—there are 12 inches in a foot, 5,280 feet in
a mile, 4 quarts in a gallon, and so on. Another advantage of the metric system is
that the same unit can be used over extremely large ranges of values simply by
switching to the most-appropriate metric prefix. For example, distances in meters
are suitable for building construction, but kilometers are used to describe road
construction. Therefore, with the metric system, there is no need to invent new
units when measuring very small or very large objects—you just have to move the
decimal point (and use the appropriate prefix).

What is It

Unit Conversion and Dimensional Analysis

A conversion factor relating meters to kilometers. A conversion factor is a ratio
expressing how many of one unit are equal to another unit. A conversion factor is
simply a fraction which equals 1. You can multiply any number by 1 and get the
same value. When you multiply a number by a conversion factor, you are simply
multiplying it by one. For example, the following are conversion factors:

1 foot/12 inches = 1 to convert inches to feet, 1 meter/100 centimeters

= 1 to convert centimeters to meters,

1 minute/60 seconds = 1 to convert seconds to minutes

In this case, we know that there are 1,000 meters in 1 kilometer.

Now we can set up our unit conversion. We will write the units that we have and
then multiply them by the conversion factor (1 km/1,000m) = 1, so we are simply
multiplying 80m by 1:

Using Scientific Notation with Physical Measurements

Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too large or small to be
conveniently written as a decimal. For example, consider the number
840,000,000,000,000. It’s a rather large number to write out. The scientific
notation for this number is 8.40 × 1014. Scientific notation follows this general
format

x   ×   10y

In this format x is the value of the measurement with all placeholder zeros
removed. In the example above, x is 8.4. The x is multiplied by a factor, 10 y, which
indicates the number of placeholder zeros in the measurement. Placeholder zeros
are those at the end of a number that is 10 or greater, and at the beginning of a
decimal number that is less than 1. In the example above, the factor is 10 14. This
tells you that you should move the decimal point 14 positions to the right, filling in
placeholder zeros as you go. In this case, moving the decimal point 14 places
creates only 13 placeholder zeros, indicating that the actual measurement value is
840,000,000,000,000.
Numbers that are fractions can be indicated by scientific notation as well. Consider
the number 0.0000045. Its scientific notation is 4.5 × 10–6. Its scientific notation
has the same format

x   ×   10y

Here, x is 4.5. However, the value of y in the 10y factor is negative, which indicates
that the measurement is a fraction of 1. Therefore, we move the decimal place to
the left, for a negative y. In our example of 4.5 × 10–6, the decimal point would be
moved to the left six times to yield the original number, which would be 0.0000045.

What’s More
Activity 1.1 Conversion of Units
Convert the given quantities:

1. 150 cm to m
2. 360 mm to m
3. 2100 cm3 to l
4. 1.2 GV to V
5. 4.6 ms to s
6. 450 K to 0F

Activity 1.2 Scientific Notation

 Express the following numbers in scientific notation.
1. 98
2. 0.0026
3. 0.0000401
4. 643.9
5. 816
6. 45800
7. 0.0068
8. 5600
9. 902
10.0.0045

 Transform the following scientific notation to standard notation

1. 6.455 x 104
2. 3.1 x 10-6
3. 5.00 x 10-2
4. 7.2 x 103
5. 9 x 105
6. 7.4 x 10-3
7. 9.3 x 102
8. 2.5 x 10-4
9. 4.01 x 101
10.2.4 x 100

Activity 1.3 Problem Solving

Problem Solving: Solve the given problem. Identify the given quantities solve for
the unknown quantities. BOX the final answer.
1. The temperature of a windshield on a winter morning is 10 0F. If the melting
point is 00C, how many degrees must the temperature of the windshield be
raised before the ice can melt?
2. Farmers must monitor their cattle for signs of infection or disease. A cow’s
healthy body temperature is 102.5 0F. What is its body temperature in
degrees Celsius?
3. Conrad is making veggie burgers for 18 children with special dietary needs
at summer camp. The burgers should be 50 g each. How many pounds of
veggies burger mix should he defrost?
4. A train on a roller coaster ride can safely carry up to 10 000 lb. If the
average adult weighs 72 kg, how many passengers can ride the roller coaster
at once?
5. A diving platform at a public swimming fool has a maximum load of 300 lb.
How many 40 kg children can stand on the platform

Additional Activities