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Measurements Summary notes

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8 views16 pages

Chapter 1 Slides

Measurements Summary notes

Uploaded by

ramahetlanarelebohile
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHAPTER 1:

UNITS AND
MEASURES

From Textbook “Physics for Scientists and Engineers (with


Modern Physics)”, Serway & Jewett, Thomson
PHYV101 Slides by Dr. David Waswa Brooks/Cole Publishers 1
After this section you should be able to...

1. Know the values of prefixes of SI units.

2. Do order of magnitude calculations.

3. Solve problems on the above.


Physics

➢ Fundamental Science
✓ Concerned with the fundamental principles of the Universe
✓ Foundation of other physical sciences
✓ Has simplicity of fundamental concepts
➢ Divided into five major areas
✓ Classical Mechanics
✓ Relativity
✓ Thermodynamics
✓ Electromagnetism
✓ Optics
✓ Quantum Mechanics
Scientific Method
1. Observe phenomena
2. Collect data measurements
3. Analyse data
4. Draw conclusions
5. Establish a theory

PATTERǸ MATHS FORMULA ̀LAW OF PHYSICS

Standards of Fundamental Quantities


✐ Standardized systems
➢ Agreed upon by some authority, usually a governmental body
✐ SI – Systéme International
➢ Agreed to in 1960 by an international committee
➢ Main system used in this text
Fundamental Quantities and Their Units

Quantity SI Unit
Length Meter
Mass Kilogram
Time Seconds
Temperature Kelvin
Electric Current Ampere
Luminous Intensity Candela
Amount of Substance Mole
Quantities Used in Mechanics
➢ In mechanics, three basic quantities are used
✓ Length
✓ Mass
✓ Time
➢ Will also use derived quantities
✓ These are other quantities that can be expressed in terms of the
basic quantities
❖ Example: Area is the product of two lengths
o Area is a derived quantity
o Length is the fundamental quantity
Length
➢ Length is the distance between two points in space
SI Units - meter, m
Defined in terms of a meter – the distance travelled by light in a vacuum
during a given time

Mass
SI Units - Kilogram, Kg
Defined in terms of a kilogram, based on a specific cylinder kept at the
International Bureau of Standards

Time
SI Units – seconds, s,
Defined in terms of the oscillation of radiation from a cesium atom
Prefixes
Prefixes correspond to powers of 10
Example: 1 ms = 10-3 s
Order of Magnitude Calculations (Ballpark Calculations)
Order of Magnitude – Approximate size of something measured in powers of 10
Rules for rounding the final answer

1. Write the answer in scientific notation - a x 10b


power
base

2. Compare the base to 3.162 (√10 ) , if


Base < 3.162 the power of magnitude remains the same.
Base >3.162 the power of magnitude increases by 1
Example 1:
Compare the diameter of the sun and earth given that the following parameters
(a) Diameter of the sun ≈ 1.4 x 109 m Order of magnitude = 9

(b) Diameter of the earth ≈ 1.3 x 107 m Order of magnitude = 7

Difference = 9 – 7 = 2
The sun is 2 orders of magnitude larger in diameter than the earth [ sun is 102 (100) times
wider than the earth]
More examples on Order of Magnitude Calculations
Example 2: Give the order of the magnitude of 89500
89500 = 8,95 x 104 ≈ 100,000 ≈ 105
Order of magnitude = 5
Example 3: Give the diameter of hydrogen atom to be 1.2 x 10-10 m. What is its
order of magnitude?
1.2 x 10-10 ≈ 10-10 , Order of magnitude = -10

Exact Rough Order of


value value magnitude
6 x 10-7 1 x 10-6 -6
0,0077 1 x 10-3 -3
0,0025 1 x 10-3 -3
897 1 x 103 3
Estimate how much household waste, South Africa produces each year.

Approximate weight of one person’s weekly household thrash ≈ 5 Kg


Population of SA ≈ 60.43 M (by 2023) ≈ 60 M ≈ 6 x 107 People
Numbers of weeks in a year = 52 ≈ 50 weeks in a year
Total weight of trash ≈(5 x 100 Kg) x (6 x 107 people) x (5 x 101 weeks) = 1,5 x 1010 Kg
Total weight of trash ≈ 1010 Kg

Breaths in a lifetime
Estimate the number of breaths taken during an average human lifetime
We start by guessing that the typical human lifetime is about 70 years. Think about the average
number of breaths that a person takes in a min. This number varies depending on whether the
person is exercising, sleeping, angry, and so forth. To the nearest order of magnitude, we shall
choose10 breaths per minute as our estimate. (This estimate is certainly closer to the true
average value than an estimate of 1 breath per minute or 100 breaths per minute).
Find the approximate number of minutes in a year:

400 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 25ℎ 60 𝑚𝑖𝑛


1𝑦𝑟 = 6𝑥105 𝑚𝑖𝑛
1𝑦𝑟 1𝑑𝑎𝑦 1ℎ
Find the approximate number of minutes in 70 yrs lifetime:
70𝑦 6𝑥105 𝑚𝑖𝑛/𝑦𝑟 = 4𝑥107 𝑚𝑖𝑛

Find the approximate number of breaths in a lifetime:


10 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑠/𝑚𝑖𝑛 4𝑥107 𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 4𝑥108 𝑚𝑖𝑛
Therefore a person takes on the order of 109 breaths in a lifetime. Notice how simpler it is in the
first calculation above to multiply 400 x 25 than it is to work with the more accurate 365 x 24
Significant Figures
➢ A significant figure is one that is reliably known
➢ Zeros may or may not be significant
✓ Those used to position the decimal point are not significant
✓ To remove ambiguity, use scientific notation
➢ In a measurement, the significant figures include the first estimated
digit

Rules for significant figures


1. All nonzero digits are significant.
✓ i.e the value 473.2 has four significant figures.
2. All zeros that are found between nonzero digits are significant.
✓ i.e the number 70,001, with three 0s between the 7 and 1, has a
total of five significant figures.
Rules for significant figures continues
3. Leading zeros (to the left of the first nonzero digit) are not significant.
✓ i.e 0.00091, has two significant figures because the 0s before the 9 are
placeholders and are not significant.
4. Trailing zeros for a whole number that ends without a decimal point are not
significant.
✓ i.e a value written as 630 shows the decimal point, which indicates that the 0 to
the right of the 3 was not measured; therefore, the value has a total of two
significant figures.
✓ In general, any confusion this may cause can be avoided by writing values
such as these in scientific notation.
5. Trailing zeros to the right of the decimal place are significant.
✓ i.e 12.000 has a total of five significant figures, since the 0s after the decimal
place have been measured to be zeros, indicating they are as significant as
any other nonzero digit.
Rules for significant figures
7. For any value written in scientific notation as A ×10x, the number of
significant figures is determined by applying the above rules only to the
value of A; the x is considered an exact number and thus has an infinite
number of significant figures.
✓ i.e. the value 4,500 can be written in scientific notation to reflect
two, three, and four significant digits:
✓ 4.5 × 103 has two significant figures
✓ 4.50 × 103 has three significant figures
✓ 4.500 × 103 has four significant figures
Operations with Significant Figures – Multiplying or Dividing
When multiplying or dividing, the number of significant figures in the final answer is
the same as the number of significant figures in the quantity having the lowest number
of significant figures.
Example:
25.57 m x 2.45 m = 62.6 m2. The 2.45m limits your result to 3 significant figures
138.0
11,9
= 11,596663 ≈ 11,6 The 11,9 limits your result to 3 significant figures

Operations with Significant Figures – Adding or Subtracting


When adding or subtracting, the number of decimal places in the result should equal the
smallest number of decimal places in any term in the sum.
Example:
135 cm + 3.25 cm = 138 cm
The 135cm limits your answer to the units decimal value

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