1.

1 Basic Fundamental Unit

Basic Fundamental Unit
•Measurement is a process of detecting an unknown physical quantity by using standard
quantity.
• For example: Take a book and use ruler (scale) to find its length. Suppose the length
was 20 cm. You underwent through a process called Measurement where:
•The unknown physical quantity was the length of book.
•The ruler was the standard quantity.
•20 was the magnitude.
•cm was the unit of the book-length.
•Units provide specific meaning to the magnitude of a substance.
•Units of measurement provide standard to identify measurement of a physical quantify.
•For example: If you say that, the volume of your notebook is 25, it provides no exact
meaning because it could be 25 mm3 or 25 cm3 or 25 dm3 and many more. But if you
use units cm3, it provides accurate meaning that the volume of the notebook is 25 cm3.

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.

 Units for other physical quantities (such as force, speed, and electric charge)
described by mathematically combining these seven base units.
 All other units are made by mathematically combining the fundamental units.
These are called derived units.

Metric Prefixes
 Physical objects or phenomena may vary widely.
 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 1.2 gives the metric prefixes and symbols used to denote the different various
factors of 10 in the metric system

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).

1.2 Unit Conversion

 The simplest way to convert one unit to another is to form a
conversion ratio (equal to one) with the desired unit on the
numerator and the unit to be converted at the denominator.
 The original quantity is multiplied by this conversion ratio.
 Unit may be multiplied or divided just like any ordinary algebraic
factors.
Length Area
• 1 inch = 2.540 centimeters • 1 sq. inch = 6.4516 sq. centimeters
• 1 millimeter = 0.03937 inches • 1 sq. centimeter = 0.1550 sq. inches
• 1 foot = 30.4878 centimeters • 1 sq. foot = 0.0929 sq. meters
• 1 centimeters = 0.3937 inches • 1 sq. meter = 1.195986 sq. yards
• 1 yard = 0.9144028 meters • 1 sq. yard = 0.83613 sq. meters
• 1 meter = 3.281 feet • 1 sq. kilometer = 0.386101 sq. miles
• 1 mile = 1.6093419 kilometer • 1 sq. mile = 2.589999 sq. kilometers
• 1 kilometer = 0.621372 miles • 1 hectare = 2.471044 acres
• 1 acre = 0.404687 hectares
• Mass (Weight) • Volume
• 1 grain = 0.05 scruples = • 1 teaspoon = 5 milliliters
0.016667 drams = 0.00208 • 1 milliliter = 0.0338147 fluid ounces
Ounces • 1 tablespoon = 15 milliliters
• 1 ounce = 28.3495 grams • 1 liter = 2.11342 pints = 1000 cubic
centimeters
• 1 gram = 0.03527396 ounces • 1 fluid ounce = 30 milliliters
• 1 pound = 16 oz = 0.4535924 • 1 liter = 1.05671 quarts = 0.264178
gallons
kilograms • 1 gallon = 3.785332 liters = 231 cubic
inches
• 1 kilogram = 2.2046223 pounds • 1 cup = 0.23658 liters
• 1 short ton = 0.892857 metric • 1 pint = 0.473167 liters
ton • 1 cubic meter = 35.3144 cubic feet =
1.30794 cubic yards
• 1 metric ton = 1.1200 short tons • 1 cubic foot = 0.0283170 cubic
meters
• 1 long ton = 1.01605 metric tons • 1 cubic yard = 0.764559 cubic
meters

Sample Problems
1. Convert (a) 55 km to meters and (b) 12 g to kilograms. Express your
answers in scientific notation.

• 2. The SI unit of force is the newton, represented by a capital letter N.

One newton of force gives a 1.0 kg body of an acceleration of 1.0
m/s2 1 N is equal to 1 kg m/s2. A smaller unit of force is the dyne. 1
dyne is equal to 1 g cm/s2. How many dynes are there in 1 N?

• Converting a given metric unit to the desired metric unit is easy.

• But dealing with temperature conversion is another thing.
• There are three common temperature scales and those are:
• Celsius
• Fahrenheit
• Kelvin
• Each scale has its use.
• When you encounter them and need to convert between them, you just
simply use the conversion formulas:
1.3 Scientific Notation & Significant Figures
Scientific Notation
• Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too large or small
to be conveniently written as a decimal.
• Any quantity may be expressed in the form N x10n, where N is any
number between 1 and 10 and n is the appropriate power of 10.
• When n is positive, we have a relatively big number, while when n is
negative, we have a relatively small number.
• 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.
• Numbers that are fractions can be indicated by scientific notation as well.
• Consider the number 0.0000045.
• Its scientific notation is 4.5 x 10–6.
Significant Figures