PHY-107 Module 01: Measurement

MODULE 01: MEASUREMENT

(Dr. Rubaiyet I. Haque)

LECTURE 01
OUTLINE:
▪ Introduction to Measurement
▪ Units
▪ Dimensions

WHAT IS PHYSICS?

Physics is the study of,

- Various natural and physical phenomena.
- Understanding of their governing principles and the fundamental laws.

NOTE: The laws of physics are not invented by people, they are only discovered

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 PHY-107 Module 01: Measurement

Physics deals with,

- Observation of phenomena.
- Uses of scientific method/ systematic way to uncover reasons.
- Study/understanding of the basic and their governing principle.
▪ Discovery/development/realization of the fundamental laws.

In physics, we study:

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 PHY-107 Module 01: Measurement

MEASURING THINGS:
Measuring things is the process of determining the quantity or dimensions of an object or a physical
property using various instruments or methods.
- Measurement provides a standardized way to quantify and compare physical quantities.
Measurement plays a crucial role in science, engineering, everyday life, and many other fields.
- Measurements help in the formulation and testing of hypotheses
- Precise measurements are crucial for quality control. It allows us to quantify, compare, and analyze
different aspects of the world around us.
- Measurements play a key role in healthcare, from monitoring vital signs to diagnostic tests.

NOTE: Science and engineering are based on measurements and comparisons. Thus, we need
rules about how things are measured and compared, and we need experiments to establish the
units for those measurements and comparisons. One purpose of physics (and engineering) is to
design and conduct those experiments.

NOTE: Why do we need to consider unit of quantity?

- To communicate the results with others and make it understandable and universal.

Basic quantities: These are independent Derived quantities: These quantities are
physical quantities derived, and thus defined in terms of basic
quantities.
E.g., Mass, Length, Time, Temperature
E.g., Area, Pressure, Density, Volume.
𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ[𝑚]
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 =
𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒[𝑠]

THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS:

The International System of Units is a global standard for expressing the magnitudes or quantities of
important natural phenomena. Also referred to as the metric system, the System of Units is commonly
abbreviated as SI.
- In 1971, the general conference on weight and measurement (CGPM) forms the International
System of Unit (SI), and picked seven quantities as basic/fundamental quantities.
- In physics, seven fundamental physical quantities are, Length, Mass, Time, Temperature,
Amount of substance, Electric current & Luminous intensity.

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 PHY-107 Module 01: Measurement

Table: Seven base quantities in international System of Unit (SI), also known as matric system.
Physical Quantity Name of Unit Abbreviation
Mass Kilogram kg
Length Meter m
Temperature Kelvin K
Amount of substance Mole mol
Time Second s
Electric current Ampere A
Luminous intensity candela cd

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION:
Scientific notation, also known as standard form or exponential notation, is a way to express numbers
that are very large or very small in a compact and convenient format.
- It is commonly used in scientific, mathematical and engineering fields to represent very large
and very small quantities.
- Generally, scientific notation is based on powers of 10.
▪ The general form of a number in scientific notation is: 𝑎 × 10𝑛 . Here 𝑎 is a number between 1
and 10, known as the coefficient, and 𝑛 is an integer representing the power of 10, indicates the
number of places the decimal point is moved to the right (if positive) or to the left (if negative).

PREFIXES OF UNITS:
Prefixes are used in the metric system to denote different powers of ten, making it easier to express
very large or very small quantities.
- Prefixes are used to indicate multiples or fractions of a unit. These prefixes help express quantities
in a more convenient or standardized form.
- It is used in the SI system to denote decimal multiples or fractions of base units.
- They allow easy representation of measurements across a wide range of magnitudes.
- Each prefix represents a certain power of 10, to be used as a multiplication factor.

For example,
𝟐. 𝟑𝟓 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟗 𝒔 = 2.35 𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 = 𝟐. 𝟑𝟓 𝒏𝒔
𝟏. 𝟓 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟓 𝒎 = 1.5 𝑓𝑒𝑚𝑡𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 = 𝟏. 𝟓 𝒇𝒔

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 PHY-107 Module 01: Measurement

CHECKPOINT: Express 2.11×10-6 m and 6.63×106 watt using prefixes.

ANSWER:
2.11 × 10−6 𝑚 = 𝟐. 𝟏𝟏 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓 = 𝟐. 𝟏𝟏 𝝁𝒎
6.63 × 106 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑡 = 𝟔. 𝟔𝟑 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕 = 𝟔. 𝟔𝟑 𝑴𝑾

CHANGING UNITS
Changing units involves converting a measurement from one unit to another while maintaining the
same quantity. It is often necessary to switch between units to facilitate comparison, standardization,
or to match the desired level of precision.
- The change of units in the physical quantities can be performed by a method called chain link
conversion.
- In this method we multiply the original measurement by a conversion factor.
- Conversion factor is a ratio of units that is equal to unity.
60 𝑠𝑒𝑐
- Convert 2 minutes to seconds: 2 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑠 × = 120 𝑠
1 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑠

CHECKPOINT: Convert 4 kg to grams.

ANSWER:
1000 𝑔𝑚
4 𝑘𝑔 = 4 𝑘𝑔 × = 4000 𝑔𝑚
1 𝑘𝑔

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES AND DECIMAL PLACES

Significant figures and decimal places are both concepts used to express the precision or accuracy of
a measured or calculated value. They are important in scientific and mathematical contexts to convey
the level of uncertainty or the number of reliable digits in a number.
Both significant figures and decimal places are used to indicate the precision or accuracy of a value,
but they convey slightly different information.
- Significant figures focus on the meaningful digits in a number.
- While decimal places specifically refer to the digits after the decimal point.

Significant figures:
Significant figures (also known as significant digits) are the number of digits in a value that carry
meaningful information about its precision.
- Significant figures encompass all the digits in a number that contribute to its precision, starting
from the first non-zero digit. This consists of all digits (both integer and fractional), including all
non-zero digits and any zeros between non-zero digits.

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The rules for determining significant figures are as follows:

- Refers to the precision of measurements. This refers to how close the agreement is between
repeated independent measurements.
- The number of significant digits depends on the least count of the measuring instrument.
- All the certain digits and the one uncertain digit are called the significant figures in the measured
value.
- Significant figures are different from the decimal places. Consider the lengths 35.6 mm, 3.56 m,
and 0.00356 m. They all have three significant figures, but they have one, two, and five decimal
places, respectively.

- The rules for determining significant figures are as follows:

1. All non-zero digits are significant.
▪ 0.345 (3 s.f.)
▪ 123.34 (5 s.f.)
▪ 42.5 (3 s.f.)
2. Zeros sandwiched between non-zero digits are significant.
▪ 4205 (4 s.f.)
▪ 32.002 (5 s.f.)
▪ 50.90402 (7 s.f.)
3. Zeros that come before all non-zero digits are not significant.
• 0.32 (2 s.f.)
• 0.00067 (2 s.f.)
• 0.00204 (3 s.f.)
4. Zeros after non-zero digits within a number without decimals are not significant.
▪ 34000 (2 s.f.)
5. Zeros after non-zero digits within a number with decimals are significant.
▪ 34.000 (5 s.f.)
▪ 5400678.002 (10 s.f.)

Decimal Places:
Decimal places refer to the number of digits after the decimal point in a number.
- They indicate the precision of a value, particularly for numbers that are expressed with a fractional
part.
- The rules for determining decimal places are as follows,
▪ The decimal places are counted from the decimal point to the right.
▪ If there are no digits after the decimal point, the number is considered to have zero decimal
places.

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ROUNDING SIGNIFICANT FIGURES:

Rounding significant figures is a process used to reduce the number of digits in a number while
preserving the meaningful information and maintaining the desired level of precision. Rounding is
commonly done to match the significant figures of a measurement or to simplify the presentation of
a value.
- Rounding introduces a level of approximation.
- Rounded value may not be as precise as the original number.
- Identify the desired number of significant figures to which rounding will be performed.
▪ If the digit is less than 5, simply drop all the digits to the right of the target significant figure.
▪ If the digit is 5 or greater, increase the target significant figure by one and drop all the digits
to the right.
- The following numbers are rounded to 2 significant figures,
▪ 0.00245 ➔ 0.0025
▪ 0.04051 ➔ 0.041
▪ 2345.07 ➔ 2.34507 × 103 ➔ 2.3 × 103 ➔ 2300 (Extra rule is apply in this example)

CHECKPOINT: What is the number of significant figures in 0.001 and 0.100?

ANSWER: Number of significant figures in 0.001 is 1, while in 0.100 it is 3.

LENGTH (L)
Length is a fundamental physical quantity that represents the extent of an object or the distance
between two points. The unit of length is the meter (m).
- Meter: Meter is defined as the distance travelled by the light in a vacuum during a time interval of
1/299792458 of a second. This time interval was chosen so that the speed of light c is exactly
299792458 𝑚/𝑠.
1 centimeter = 10-2 m
1 meter = 100 m
1 kilometer = 103 m

PROMBLEM 01-01: Earth is approximately a sphere of radius 6.37 × 106 𝑚. What are (a) its
circumference in kilometers, (b) its surface area in square kilometers, and (c) its volume in cubic
kilometers?

PROMBLEM 01-03: The micrometer (1 µm) is often called the micron. (a) How many microns
make up 1.0 km? (b) What fraction of a centimeter equals 1.0 µm? (c) How many microns are in
1.0 yd?

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 PHY-107 Module 01: Measurement

TIME (t)
Time is a fundamental concept that is used to sequence events, quantify durations, and measure the
intervals between occurrences. The unit of time is the second (s).
- Second: Second is defined as the time taken by 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the light (of specific
wavelength) emitted by a cesium-133 atom.
▪ Atomic clocks are so consistent that, in principle, two cesium clocks would have to run for
6000 years before their readings would differ by more than 1 s.

PROMBLEM 01-12: The fastest growing plant on record is a Hesperoyucca whipplei that grew
3.7 m in 14 days. What was its growth rate in micrometers per second?

PROMBLEM 01-14: (a) How long is a microcentury in minutes? (b) Using

𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙−𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 = find the percentage difference from the
𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙
approximation.

MASS (m)
Mass is a fundamental property of matter, representing the amount of substance in an object. The unit
of mass is kilogram (kg).
- Kilogram: kilogram is defined as the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram, that is
made a platinum-iridium cylinder with height of 3.9 cm and diameter of 3.9 cm, kept at the
international Bureau of Weights and Measures, Paris, France.
1 gram = 10-3 kg
1 kilogram = 100 kg
1 Ton = 103 kg

A 2nd mass standard is atomic mass unit (u).

- Atomic mass unit: Atomic mass unit is defined as 1⁄12 of the mass of a free carbon-12 atom at
rest in its ground state. It is used to express atomic and molecular masses.
𝑀(12𝐶)
1𝑢 = = 1.66053906660 × 10−27 𝑘𝑔
12𝑁𝐴
Here, 𝑀(12𝐶) is the experimentally determined molar mass of carbon-12, and 𝑁𝐴 is the Avogadro
constant.

NOTE:
• The most precise standard weight human has ever created was the kilogram, a Platinum-
Iridium cylinder stored in a vault on the outskirts of Paris.
• Replicas of this kilogram were sent to countries around the world to use as their mass
standard.
• For smaller mass measurement, kg is divided into smaller reference mass. For example, 1
mg is 1 million times smaller than 1 kg.
• You can subdivide over a large range of these masses from kilogram. But more you perform
the subdivision the certainty increases a bit.

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• Over the course of the century or so, replica kilograms where compared with the one stored
in Paris vault. And from those measurements, it became clear that their weights were
diverging by up to 75 micro-grams. It is difficult to say if the replicas were getting heavier
or original was getting lighter.
• But it was unacceptable to have mass standard with changing masses.
• So the solution was to eliminate the kilogram’s dependance on a physical object. And
instead define it based on a constant of nature. PLANK’S CONSTANT.
• Plank’s constant relates the frequency of a photon to it’s energy. E=hf (E=energy, h=
Planks constant, and f= frequency)
ℎ𝑓
• But, 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐 2 . Therefore, 𝑚 = 2 . This is how plunk’s constant is related to the mass.
𝑐

PROMBLEM 01-22: Gold, which has a density of 19.32 𝑔/𝑐𝑚3 , is the most ductile metal and
can be pressed into a thin leaf or drawn out into a long fiber. (a) If a sample of gold, with a mass of
27.63 𝑔, is pressed into a leaf of 1.000 𝜇𝑚 thickness, what is the area of the leaf? (b) If, instead,
the gold is drawn out into a cylindrical fiber of radius 2.500 𝜇𝑚, what is the length of the fiber?

PROMBLEM 01-23: (a) Assuming that water has a density of exactly 1 𝑔/𝑐𝑚3 , find the mass of
one cubic meter of water in kilograms. (b) Suppose that it takes 10.0 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 to drain a container of
5700 𝑚3 of water. What is the “mass flow rate”, in kilograms per second, of water from the
container?

PROMBLEM 01-27: Iron has a density of 7.87 𝑔/𝑐𝑚3 , and the mass of an iron atom is
9.27 × 10−26 𝑘𝑔. If the atoms are spherical and tightly packed, (a) what is the volume of an iron
atom and (b) what is the distance between the centers of adjacent atoms?

DENSITY (𝝆)
The density (ρ) of a material is defined as the mass (m) per unit volume (V).
- The unit of density is kg/m3.
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 (𝑚)
𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝜌) =
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 (𝑉)
Density Unit [𝐤𝐠/𝐦𝟑 ]
CH4 0.657
Cooking oil 910 - 930
Water 1000
Steel 7750 – 8050
Gold 19300

CHECKPOINT: Convert 5.2 gm/cm3 to kg/m3.

ANSWER:
1 𝑘𝑔
𝑔𝑚 1𝑔𝑚 × 1000 𝑔𝑚 10−3 𝑘𝑔
5.2 = 5.2 × 3 = 5.2 × = 5.2 × 103 𝑘𝑔/𝑚3
𝑐𝑚3 (1 𝑚) 10 −6 𝑚3
1 𝑐𝑚3 ×
(100 𝑐𝑚)3

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PHY-107 Module 01: Measurement

PROBLEM: A heavy object can sink into the ground during an earthquake if the shaking causes
the ground to undergo liquefaction, in which the soil grains experience little friction as they slide
over one another. The ground is then effectively quicksand. The possibility of liquefaction in sandy
ground can be predicted in terms of the void ratio 𝑒 for a sample of the ground:
𝑉𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑑𝑠
𝑒=
𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠
Here, 𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 is the total volume of the sand grains in the sample and 𝑉𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑑𝑠 is the total volume
between the grains (in the voids). If 𝑒 exceeds a critical value of 0.80, liquefaction can occur during
an earthquake. What is the corresponding sand density 𝜌𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 ? Solid silicon dioxide (the primary
component of sand) has a density of 𝜌𝑆𝑖𝑂2 = 2.600 × 103 𝑘𝑔/𝑚3 .
𝑚𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑
ANSWER: Density of sand, 𝜌𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 = … … … (1)
𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙

The total volume,

𝑉𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑑𝑠
𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 + 𝑉𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑑𝑠 = 𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 + 𝑒 𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 [since ,𝑒 = ]
𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠
𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙
Therefore, 𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 = … … … (2)
1+𝑒

The total mass 𝑚𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 of the sand grains is the product of the density of silicon dioxide and the total
volume of the sand grains:
𝑚𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 = 𝜌𝑆𝑖𝑂2 𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 … … … (3)
Substituting this expression into Eq. 1 and then substituting for 𝑉𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 from Eq. 2 lead to
𝜌𝑆𝑖𝑂2 𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝜌𝑆𝑖𝑂2
𝜌𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 = . = … … … (4)
𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 1+𝑒 1+𝑒

Substituting 𝜌𝑆𝑖𝑂2 = 2.600 × 103 𝑘𝑔/𝑚3 and the critical value of 𝑒 = 0.80, we find that
liquefaction occurs when the sand density is less than
2600 × 103 𝑘𝑔/𝑚3
𝜌= = 1.4 × 103 𝑘𝑔/𝑚3
(1 + 0.80)

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