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Physics
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UNITS AND MEASUREMENT

Definition of Physics and Physical Quantities

Physics: A science that deals with matter and energy and the way they act on each other in heat, light,
electricity, and sound.
• Physical Quantities: All Quantities in terms of which laws of Physics can be expressed and which can
be measured are called Physical Quantities.
Example: Distance, speed, mass & time etc.

Non-physical quantities:
Non-physical quantities are quantities that cannot be measured.
Examples of non-physical quantities include:
• Color
• Taste
• Emotions
• Feelings
• Thoughts

Classification of Physical Quantities

The physical quantities are classified into
(i) Fundamental quantities or base quantities
(ii) Derived quantities
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Units
The reference standard used to measure the physical quantities is called the unit.

Types of Units
(i) Fundamental Units
The units defined for the fundamental quantities are called fundamental units.
(ii) Derived Units
The units of all other physical quantities which are derived from the fundamental units are called the
derived units.

System of Units
(1) FPS System: In this system, the unit of length is foot, the unit of mass is pound, and the unit of time is
second.
(2) CGS System: In this system, the units of length, mass and time are centimetre, gram and second,
respectively.
(3) MKS System: In this system, the unit of length, mass and time are meter, kilogram and second,
respectively.
(4) SI System: This system is widely used in all measurements throughout the world.
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MEASUREMENT OF LENGTH
• A metre scale is used for lengths from 10–3m to 102 m.
• A vernier callipers is used for lengths to an accuracy of 10–4 m.
• A screw gauge and a spherometer can be used to measure lengths as less as to 10–5 m.

Measurement of Large Distances

Large distances such as the distance of a planet or a star from the earth cannot be measured directly with
a metre scale. An important method in such cases is the parallax method.
• We also use certain special length units for short and large lengths.
• These are 1 fermi = 1 f = 10–15 m & 1 angstrom = 1 Å = 10–10 m

• 1 astronomical unit = 1 AU (average distance of the Sun from the Earth) = 1.496 × 1011 m

• 1 light year = 1 ly = 9.46 × 1015 m (distance that light travels with velocity of 3 × 108 m s–1 in 1 year)

• 1 parsec = 3.08 × 1016 m (Parsec is the distance at which average radius of earth’s orbit subtends an
angle of 1 arc second)
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UNDERSTANDING MOTION
In Kinematics, we study ways to describe motion without going into the causes of motion.

REFERENCE POINT AND REFERENCE FRAME

• To describe the position of an object we need a reference point or origin. An object may seem to be
moving to one observer and stationary to another.
• Example: A passenger inside a bus sees the other passengers to be at rest, whereas an observer outside
the bus sees the passengers to be in motion.
• In order to make observations easy, a convention or a common reference point or frame is needed.
All objects must be in the same reference frame.

MAGNITUDE
Magnitude is the size or extent of a physical quantity.
Example: 2 kg (2 represents Magnitude and Kg represents its unit).
• In physics, we have scalar and vector quantities.
• Scalar quantities are only expressed as magnitude.
• Example: time, distance, mass, temperature, area, volume etc.
• Vector quantities are expressed in magnitude as well as the direction of the object.
• Example: Velocity, displacement, weight, momentum, force, acceleration, etc.
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DISTANCE AND DISPLACEMENT

The magnitude of the length covered by a moving object is called distance. It has no direction.
• Displacement is the shortest distance between two points or the distance between the starting and
final positions with respect to time. It has magnitude as well direction.
• Displacement can be zero, but distance cannot.

TIME, AVERAGE SPEED AND VELOCITY

UNIFORM MOTION AND NON-UNIFORM MOTION

• When an object covers equal distances in equal intervals of time it is in uniform motion.
• When an object covers unequal distances in equal intervals of time it is said to be in non-uniform
motion.

TIME AND SPEED

• Time is the duration of an event that is expressed in seconds. It is a scalar quantity.
• Speed is the rate of change of distance. If a body covers a certain distance in a certain amount of time,
its speed is given by Speed=Distance / Time.

If an object travels a distance s in time t, then its speed v is

𝒔
𝒗=
𝒕
• Average speed = Total distance travelled / Total time taken

VELOCITY
The Rate of change of displacement is velocity.
It is a vector quantity. Here the direction of motion is specified.

• Velocity = Displacement / Time

𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 + 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚
𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 =
𝟐
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𝒖+𝒗
Mathematically, 𝒗𝒂𝒗 = 𝟐
Where, 𝑣𝑎𝑣 is the average velocity, u is the initial velocity and v is the final velocity of the object.
𝑚
Speed and velocity have the same units, that is, m𝑠 −1 or 𝑠 .

Instantaneous velocity or simply velocity is defined as the limit of the average velocity as the time interval
∆𝑡 becomes infinitesimally small:

∆𝑥 𝑑𝑥
𝑣 = lim 𝑣̅ = lim =
∆𝑡→0 ∆𝑡→0 ∆𝑡 𝑑𝑡

The velocity at a particular instant is equal to the slope of the tangent drawn on position-time graph at
that instant.

ACCELERATION
The rate of change of velocity is called acceleration. It is a vector quantity. In non-uniform motion, velocity
varies with time, i.e., change in velocity is not 0. It is denoted by “a”
• If an object travels in a straight line and its velocity increases or decreases by equal amounts in equal
intervals of time, then the acceleration of the object is said to be uniform.

• The motion of a freely falling body is an example of uniformly accelerated motion.

• On the other hand, an object can travel with non-uniform acceleration if its velocity changes at a non-
uniform rate.

• For example, if a car travelling along a straight road increases its speed by unequal amounts in equal
intervals of time, then the car is said to be moving with non-uniform acceleration

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚
𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 =
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏
If the velocity of an object changes from an initial value u to the final value v in time t, the acceleration
a is,
𝒗−𝒖
𝒂=
𝒕

• This kind of motion is known as accelerated motion.

• The acceleration is taken to be positive if it is in the direction of velocity and negative when it is
opposite to the direction of velocity.
• The SI unit of acceleration is 𝒎𝒔−𝟐 .
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MOTION VISUALISED
Graphs provide a convenient method to present basic information about a variety of events.

DISTANCE-TIME GRAPH
• Distance-Time graphs show the change in position of an object with respect to time.
• Linear variation = uniform motion and non-linear variations imply non- uniform motion
• The slope gives us speed.

Position-time graph for motion with

(a) positive acceleration;
(b) negative acceleration, and
(c) zero acceleration.
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VELOCITY-TIME GRAPH
• Velocity-Time graphs show the change in velocity with respect to time.
• Slope gives acceleration.
• The area under the curve gives displacement.
• Line parallel to x-axis implies constant velocity.
• If the object moves at uniform velocity, the height of its velocity-time graph will not change with time.

• The product of velocity and time give displacement of an object moving with uniform velocity.
• The area enclosed by velocity-time graph and the time axis will be equal to the magnitude of the
displacement.
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