Welcome to IB Physics

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 Expectations
• On time to lessons, please make a special
effort to get here quickly from assembly
• All homework is completed, fully marked, and
brought to the following lesson
• You come and get help before the lesson when
you can’t do a homework
• You complete independent study

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 Organisation
• Spec, formula sheet
• Dividers for different sections

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Physical quantities, units and
estimation
• Identify physical quantities and know the base
SI units
• Be able to carry out some order of magnitude
estimations
Prior to the French Revolution, at least 250,000 different units of measurement were used throughout France (Credit: Madhvi
Ramani)

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 The International Bureau of Weights and
Measures (BIPM) was established to promote the
uniformity of international units of measurement
(Credit: Chronicle/Alamy)

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• The task of coming up with a new system of measurement was given to the
nation’s preeminent scientific thinkers of the Enlightenment. These
scientists were keen to create a new, uniform set based on reason rather
than local authorities and traditions.

• Therefore, it was determined that the metre was to be based purely on

nature. It was to be one 10-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to
the equator.

• The line of longitude running from the pole to the equator that would be
used to determine the length of the new standard was the Paris meridian.
• This line dissects the centre of the Paris Observatory

• building in the 14th arrondissement, and is marked by a brass strip laid into
the white marble floor of its high-ceilinged Meridian Room, or Cassini
Room.

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 The line of longitude used to determine the length of the
metre runs through the centre of the Paris Observatory
(Credit: Madhvi Ramani)

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 The BIPM houses the original standard
metre and the original standard kilogram
(Credit: Madhvi Ramani)

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 One of the last remaining ‘mètre étalons’, or standard metre bars, can
be found below a ground-floor window on the Ministry of Justice in Paris
(Credit: PjrTravel/Alamy)

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 • http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/
20180923-how-france-created-the-
metric-system

https://www.bbc.com/news/
science-environment-46143399
new method for kg

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 Which of these are physical
quantities?

Length kilograms seconds

sphere time paper

TemperatureVolts mass electric current volume

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 Which of these are physical
quantities?

Length kilograms seconds

sphere time paper

TemperatureVolts mass electric current volume

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 SI base units
Physical quantity Quantity Symbol Unit Unit Symbol
(the thing we (shorthand) (what we measure (shorthand)
measure) that quantity in)
mass m kilogram Kg
Length
Time
Current

A committee of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) has proposed revised formal definitions
of the SI base units, which are being examined by the CIPM and which will likely be adopted at the 26th General
Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in the fall of 2018

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 SI base units

Quantity Quantity Unit Unit

Symbol Symbol
mass m kg
l metre m
time t
temperature K
electric current ampere
Mole x mole mol
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 SI base units

Quantity Quantity Unit Unit

Symbol Symbol
mass m kilogram kg
length l metre m
time t second s
temperature T Kelvin K
electric current I ampere A
Mole x mole mol
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 Derived units
Other physical quantities have units that can
be expressed in terms of the SI base units

Physical quantity Quantity Symbol Derived Unit SI Base Unit

(the thing we (shorthand) Symbol (derived unit
measure) converted into base
units)
Speed
Acceleration
Force
Work W
Power
Charge q

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 From the big to the small
In physics, we deal with very big and very very
small numbers.
 From the big to the small
We use powers of ten to make them less
awkward.
For example: a mountain is 5400m high
3
5400m  5.4 10 m  5.4km
This is known as Standard Form.
 Standard Form
This is when we write numbers between 1 and
10 and then multiply them by a power of ten.
Example:
3
5400m  5.4 10 m
3
0.00128s  1.28  10 s
 Standard Form
Write these in Standard Form:
1)5 000 000
2)820
3)0.02
4)0.0005
 Prefixes
Usually we write things in shorthand using prefixes:

103 m = 1000 m = 1 km ‘1 kilometre’

10-3 m= 0.001 m = 1 mm ‘1 millimetre’
10-2 m= 0.01 m = 1 cm ‘1 centimetre’3
5.4  10 m  5400m  5.4 km
 Conversions

1. Convert 10 μA to A 3. Convert 104m to km

2. Convert 4 mC to C 4. Convert 5 kN to mN
 Squared and cubed quantities
Convert 1 cm2 to m2
 Order of magnitude Estimation
• To “calculate” the estimated order of
magnitude: Calculate the log10 of the value
then round to the nearest whole no. to obtain
the approximate order of magnitude:
• Eg: approximate order of magnitude for 370

is log10 370 = 2.568 rounds to 3 so 3

 Order of magnitude estimations

• How thick is a sheet of paper?

• How ‘heavy’ is the Sun? (its mass)
• How fast does light travel?
• What is the radius of an atom?
• How old is the universe?
 Order of magnitude estimations
Estimate how many grains of sand do you
need to fill the whole Earth?

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 Order of magnitude estimations
How fast does human hair grow?

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 Order of magnitude estimations
How long would a line be if all the people on
Earth were to hold hands in a straight line?

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 Order of magnitude estimations
How many apples would it take to fill a family
car?

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 Order of magnitude estimations
How long does it take for light to reach us
from the Sun (Sun is 1.5 x 1011 m away)

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 Homework
Tsokos p. 6
Q 1,5,8,11,14,15-18,19,20,21,29,33

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 Exam questions

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