2021/2022 Physics

SI UNITS
SUMMARY
Scientists measure the properties of many different things and express these measurements as
quantities. A quantity is an amount of something and consists of a number and a unit. The
number tells us how many (or how much), and the unit tells us what the scale of measurement
is.
For example, when a distance is reported as “5 kilometers,” we know that the quantity has been
expressed in units of kilometers and that the number of kilometers is 5. If you ask a friend how
far he or she walks from home to school, and the friend answers “12” without specifying a unit,
you do not know whether your friend walks—for example, 12 meters, 12 kilometers, 12 yards, or
12 miles. Both a number and a unit must be included to express a quantity properly.

Physical quantity: a quantity that can be measured and has a unit. Example: Time, length etc.

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

Scientists often work with extremely large or extremely small physical quantities.
Numbers such as these can be cumbersome to work with. As a result, scientists adopt
the scientific notation system.

Scientific notation is a system for expressing very large or very small numbers in a
compact manner. It uses the idea that such numbers can be rewritten as a simple
number multiplied by 10 raised to a certain exponent, or power.
Let us look first at large numbers. Suppose a spacecraft is 1 500 000 kilometers from
Mars. The number 1 500 000 can be thought of as follows:

The convention for expressing numbers in scientific notation is to write a single nonzero
first digit, a decimal point, and the rest of the digits, excluding any trailing zeros. This
figure is followed by a multiplication sign and then by 10 raised to the power necessary
to reproduce the original number.

How do we know to what power 10 is raised? The power is the number of places you
have to move the decimal point to the left to make it follow the first digit:
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Now let’s look at small numbers.

We can also use scientific notation to express numbers whose magnitudes are less
than 1. For example, the number 0,006 can be expressed as follows:

We use a negative number as the power to indicate the number of places we have to
move the decimal point to the right to follow the first nonzero digit. This is illustrated as
follows:

In scientific notation, numbers with a magnitude greater than one have a positive
power, while numbers with a magnitude less than one have a negative power.
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The seven base SI units

Property Unit Abbreviation

Prefixes used with

length metre M SI units
Multiplicative Factor in
Prefix
mass Abbreviation
kilogram Multiplicative Factor
Kg Scientific Notation

time second S× 1 000 000 000

giga- G 109 ×

amount mole mol

mega- M × 1 000 000 106 ×

temperature kelvin K× 1 000

kilo- k 103 ×

electrical
deca- current ampere amp
D × 10 101 ×

luminous intensity candela Cd

deci- d × 1/10 10−1 ×

centi- c × 1/100 10−2 ×

milli- m × 1/1 000 10−3 ×

micro- µ* × 1/1 000 000 10−6 ×

nano- n × 1/1 000 000 000 10−9 ×

*The letter µ is the Greek lowercase letter for m and is called “mu,” which is pronounced
“myoo.”

CONVERSIONS

Many times in science we encounter information in another unit other than the S.I. unit,
e.g. nm or km, because the SI unit is too big or too small to be convenient for that
physical quantity, and it will be necessary to convert it before substituting it into
equations.

Below are some tips to remember when converting:

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 When going from a small unit to a big unit (DIVIDE)

 When going from a big unit to a small unit (MULTIPLY)

CONVERSIONS OF LENGTHS
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CONVERSIONS OF TIME
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SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
To determine the number of significant figures in a number use the following 3 rules:

1. Non-zero digits are always significant

2. Any zeros between two significant digits are significant

3. A final zero or trailing zeros in the decimal portion ONLY are significant

Example: .500 or .632000 the zeros are significant

.006 or .000968 the zeros are NOT significant

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Physical quantities & Units:

(Acceleration) Gravity measured in m/s2

Force of gravity is measured in Newton(N)

Speed is measured in m/s or km/hr
SI unit of speed is m/s
SI unit of Mass is measured in kg
SI unit of distance is m
Velocity is measured in m/s
Marwan is moving with a velocity 1 m/s upwards (direction)
Velocity depends on direction.
Temperature is measured in Kelvin.
SI unit of Energy is measured in Joule(J)
Power is measured in Watt(W)
SI unit of Length is measured in m
SI unit of time is S.
SI unit of electric current is Ampere (A)
SI unit of electric charge is Coulomb. (C)