General Physics 1 Lesson 1

Units of
Measurements
Units of
Measurements
Physical Quantities
Conversion of Units
Scientific Notation
OBJECTIVES
1 2 3 4 5 6
define physical differentiate differentiate metric and convert units of express number in solve measurement
quantity; fundamental and derive British system of measurement; scientific notation; and problems involving
quantity; measurement; conversion of units and
expression in scientific
notation
Physical Quantities
All physical quantities in

the International System of
Units (SI) are expressed in
terms of combinations of
seven fundamental physical
units, which are units for:
length, mass, time, electric
current, temperature,
amount of a substance,
and luminous intensity.
SI Units:
Fundamental and
•Derived Units
There are 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.
SI Units: Fundamental
and Derived Units
• 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:
length, mass, time, electric current, temperature,
amount of substance, and luminous intensity.
• Units for other physical quantities (such as force,
speed, and electric charge) described by
mathematically combining these seven base units.
(mainly used) : length, mass, time, electric current
and temperature.
• Physical objects or phenomena may vary widely. For
example, the size of objects varies from something very
Metric Prefixes small (like an atom) to something very large (like a star).
• 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.).
• 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).
Unit Conversion and
Dimensional Analysis
• A conversion factor relating meters to
kilometers. A conversion factor is a ratio
expressing how many of one unit are
equal to another unit. A conversion factor
is simply a fraction which equals 1.
• You can multiply any number by 1 and get
the same value. When you multiply a
number by a conversion factor, you are
simply multiplying it by one. For example,
the following are conversion factors:
• In this case, we know that
there are 1,000 meters in 1
kilometer.
• Now we can set up our unit
conversion. We will write the
units that we have and then
multiply them by the
conversion factor (1
km/1,000m) = 1, so we are
simply multiplying 80m by 1:
Using Scientific Notation
with Physical
Measurements
• Scientific notation is a way of writing

numbers that are too large or small to
be conveniently written as a decimal.
• 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 . Scientific notation follows
this general format
• In this format x is the value of the measurement with all
placeholder zeros removed.
• In the example, x is 8.4.
• The x is multiplied by a factor, 10y, which indicates the number
of placeholder zeros in the measurement.
• Placeholder zeros are those at the end of a number that is 10 or
greater, and at the beginning of a decimal number that is less
than 1.
• In the example above, the factor is 1014.
• This tells you that you should move the decimal point
14 positions to the right, filling in placeholder zeros as
you go.
• In this case, moving the decimal point 14 places
creates only 13 placeholder zeros, indicating that the
actual measurement value is 840,000,000,000,000.
• Numbers that are fractions can be indicated by scientific
notation as well. Consider the number 0.0000045. Its
scientific notation is 4.5 × 10–6. Its scientific notation has the
same format

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Units of

All physical quantities in

• Scientific notation is a way of writing

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