CLB10402

Basic Quantities and SI Units.

Physical Quantities

 A physical quantity is something which can be observed and measured.

 Examples: Length, area, speed, weight, temperature, electric current.
 All these quantities can be observed and their magnitudes or sizes can be
measured.
 There are two categories of physical quantities : base quantities and derived
quantities.
 Base quantity is the basis of a physical measurement and it is not a combination
of any other quantities.

SI Units.

Base quantities and base units

 The table below shows the base quantities chosen fro the international System of
Units (SI) and their corresponding base units.

Table 1. Seven base quantities in System International (SI) unit.

Base quantities Si Units Symbols

Mass kilogram kg
Length metre m
Time second s
Thermodynamic kelvin K
temperature
Amount of substance mole mol
Electric current ampere A
Luminous intensity candela cd

 A base quantity can be written in terms of prefixes to indicate power of ten factors
and to simplify pronunciation. Table 2 lists some of the prefixes that are
commonly used.

Table 2 : Lists of prefixes and its respective powers of ten.

Prefix Tera Giga Mega kilo centi mili micro nano pico
Symbol T G M k c m  n p
Value 1012 109 106 103 10-2 10-3 10-6 10-9 10-12
CLB10402

Unit Conversion

Example 1.1

Convert :
i. 110 km/h to m/s
ii. 340 m/s to km/h
iii. 15 cm2 to m2
iv. 1 g/cm3 to kg/m3

Solution

 km  1000m  1h   m
i. 110      30.6 
 h  1km  3600s   s