General Physics 1

1st Semester
How do you get the distance of one
place to another?
How do you know how heavy an
object is?
How do you know how
fast a runner run?
 Objectives:
• Covert units from one standard to
another;
• Transform numerical value to
scientific notation and vice versa;
and
• Manifest excellence while
answering the worksheet.
• The process of associating numbers
with physical quantities and
phenomena
(Britannica.com)
• Finding a number that shows the size
or amount of something
(Mathsisfun.com)
Standard Units and Systems of Units

• Expressed in magnitude and

units
• Fundamental quantities – length,
mass, & time
• Standard Unit – fixed and
reproducible value to take
accurate measurements
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Section 1.4
 Two major systems of units

• British (English) system – only used

widely in the United States (miles, inches,
pounds, seconds, etc.)
• Metric system – used throughout most of
the world (kilometers, meters, grams, etc.)

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Section 1.4
• The measurement of space in any
direction
• Space has three dimensions – length,
width, and height.
Metric Standard Unit =
Meter (m)
British Standard Unit = Foot

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Section 1.4
The Meter
Originally defined as
a physical quantity of
nature.

1/10,000,000 of the
distance from the
equator to the pole.

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Section 1.4
 The Meter

The meter is now defined by the distance light travels

in a vacuum/time.
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Section 1.4
• The amount of matter an object
contains
• An object’s mass is always
constant

Metric Standard Unit = Kilogram (kg)

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Section 1.4
Mass is a Fundamental Quantity
and Remains Constant - Weight
Varies

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Section 1.4
• the continuous,
forward flowing of
events
• has only one direction
→ forward
• Second (s)
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Section 1.4
 A Second of Time

Originally
defined as a
fraction of the
average solar
day.

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Section 1.4
 A Second of Time
Defined by the radiation frequency of the Cs133
atom

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Section 1.4
 Fundamental units
–meter, m (length)
–kilogram, kg (mass)
–second, s (time)
–ampere, A (electrical current)
–kelvin, K (temperature)
–mole, mol (amount of a substance)
–candela, cd (luminous intensity)
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Section 1.5
Some conversions of units…
• Metric examples vs. British examples
– 1 kilometer = 1000 meters
– 1 mile = 5280 feet
– 1 meter = 100 centimeters
– 1 yard = 3 feet or 36 inches
– 1 liter = 1000 milliliters
– 1 quart = 32 ounces or 2 pints
– 1 gallon = 128 ounces

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Section 1.5
 Dimensional
Analysis
• The goal is to cancel out units other than the desired
units through the use of fixed relationships
 Steps to Convert
• Step 1 - Choose/Use a Conversion Factor,
generally can be looked up.
• Step 2 – Arrange the Conversion Factor into
the appropriate form, so that unwanted units
cancel out.

• Step 3 – Multiply or Divide to calculate

answer.
• Use common sense – anticipate answer!
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Section 1.6
 • 22 inches = ?? Meters
• Inches → centimeters → meters

2.54cm 1m
22 in x x = 0.56 m
1in 100cm
Starting Value Conv. Factor #1 Conv. Factor #2 Result
in → cm cm → m

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Section 1.6
 How high is this road in feet?

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Photo Source: Copyright © Bobby H. Bammel. All rights reserved.
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Section 1.6
 Practice…
Convert the following:

10,000,000 seconds to years

12,000,000 centimeters to kilometers
1,000,000 inches to mile

With complete solution

General Physics 1
1st Semester
What will you do if
the value of the
number is so big?
 Powers-of-10 Notation
(Scientific Notation)
• Many numbers are very large or very small
– it is more convenient to express them in
‘powers-of-10’ notation
• 1,000,000 = 10x10x10x10x10x10 = 106
1 1
= 6 = 0.000001 = 10-6
1,000,000 10

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Section 1.7
Examples of Numbers Expressed
in Powers-of-10 Notation

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Section 1.7
 Scientific Notation
• The distance to the sun can be expressed
many ways:
– 93,000,000 miles
– 93 x 106 miles
– 9.3 x 107 miles
– 0.93 x 108 miles
• All four are correct, but 9.3 x 107 miles is the
preferred format.
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Section 1.7
 Rules for Scientific Notation
• The exponent, or power-of-10, is
increased by one for every place the
decimal point is shifted to the left.
– 360,000 = 3.6 x 105
• The exponent, or power-of-10, is
decreased by one for every
place the decimal point is shifted
to the right.
– 0.0694 = 6.94 x 10-2
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Section 1.7
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Section 1.5
 Significant
Figures
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Section 1.7
• When we use
hand calculators
we may end up
with results like:
6.8/1.67 =
4.0718563
• Are all these
numbers
“significant?”
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Section 1.7
• General Rule: Report only as many
significant figures in the result as there
are in the quantity with the least.

6.8 cm/1.67 cm =
5.687 + 11.11 =

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Section 1.7
All non-zero
digits are
significant

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Section 1.7
Zeros are significant if between
two non-zero digits (‘captive’)

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Section 1.7
Zeros are not significant to the left of
non-zero digits – used to locate a
decimal point (leading zeros)
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Section 1.7
 To the right of all
non-zero digits
(trailing zeros),
must be determined
from context

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Section 1.7
 Answer the ff items:
Convert the following numbers to the desired
unit. Answer must be in scientific notation (if
possible) and must be in 4 significant figures.
1. 1 yotta seconds to years
2. 12 kilometers to inches
3. 1000 kilograms to pounds
(1 gram = 0.00220462262 pounds)
4. 300 yards to centimeters
(1inch = 2.5 centimeters)