Michael S.

Vego 201910349

PHYSICS 21 CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS

Module 1: UNITS AND

MEASUREMENTS

1. A guidebook describes the rate of climb of a mountain trail as 120 meters per kilometer.
How can you express this as a number with no units?

120 meters / 1 kilometer = 120 meters / 1000 meters = 120 meters / 1000 meters = 120 /
1000 = 0.12, which can be said as the slope of the mountain.

2. What is your height in centimeters? What is your weight in newtons? Show your proof.

I am 5 ft 4 inches, and I weigh 108 lbs. 5 ft 4 inches = 64 inches. 1 inch = 2.540 cm,
therefore 64 inches = 64(2.540 cm) = 162.56 cm. 1 lb = 4.448 newtons (N), so 108 lbs =
108 (4.448 N) = 480.384 N.

3. Describe how you could measure the thickness of a sheet of paper with an ordinary ruler.

I could measure the thickness of a sheet of paper with an ordinary ruler by

stacking the same sheets of paper I aim to measure together and compress them well, then I
will measure the thickness of the stack with the ruler and then I will divide the
measurement with the number of sheets in the stack and the result would be thickness of the
sheet of paper. I could also cut up the single sheet of paper into strips and stack them and
also apply the method above.