MEASUREMENT

† Each base quantity is in terms of a certain basic, arbitrarily chosen but properly standardised
reference standard called unit (such as metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole and candela).
The units for the fundamental or base quantities are called fundamental or base units.

† SI Base Units

No. Base quantity SI units Symbol

1 length meter m

2 mass kilogram kg

3 time second s

4 electric current ampere A

5 temperature kelvin K

6 amount of substance mole mol

7 luminous intensity candela cd

In addition there are two SI supplementary units the radian, the SI unit of the quantity plane angle;
and the steradian, the SI unit of the quantity solid angle. Supplementary units are as follows:

SI Supplementary Units

No. Supplementary Name Symbol quantity

8 plane angle radian rad

9 solid angle steradian sr

† Angstrom: An angstrom is a unit of length used to measure small things such as the
wavelengths of light, atoms and molecules. Ten billion angstroms equal 1 meter 1 Å =10–10m.
Fermi: A unit of length used to measure nuclear distances

= 10–15 meter.

† Some SI Derived Units :

(i) Velocity m/s

(ii) Acceleration m/s2

(iii) Force kg m/s2 (newton)

(iv) Work Nm (Joule)

(v) Power Joule/s (watt)