Measurement:

Q.1 How would you criticize the statement once you have picked The standard by the
very meaning of Standard It is Invariable?

That is the essence of standards - they should be invariable.

However one might change the mode of definition. Let’s do a little walk through history.

The meter was defined as a measure somewhere of the length of a pace as used in surveying.
Thus a definition like “ 1 meter = 1/10 000 000 of a quadrant” the latter being a quarter of the
length of the “… meridian of Earth that touches Paris and the North Pole” seemed quite handy. It
was easy to measure long distances with optical means with great accuracy. For more handy
applications, a number of metal bars with exactly the length of 1 m were created and hence used
as a standard. That was 1799.

In the meantime (1960) the definition was changed to 1 650 763,73 times the wavelength of light
emitted of Krypton atoms when their electrons change from 5 d5 to 2 p10 stage - not very handy
but more precise to measure.

Today the definition is that “1 meter is 1/299 793 458 of the distance light in vacuum will travel
in 1 second” and “1 second is the time it takes Cesium atoms 133 Cs to do 9 192 631 770 cycles
between their hyperfine structure states in their ground state”. Even more precise to measure, and
this repeatedly and anywhere on the globe without standard modifications.

With this they found out that the original standard embodiment had a length of 1 000 000 160.6
nanometers - a little bit too long according to modern standards. Also by using satellites they
found out that the “Paris” meridian had a length of 10 001 966 m - ups. More than a nautical
mile too long.

Q.2 List characteristics other than accessibility and invariability that you would
consider desirable for a physical standard.

Reproducibility and Indestructibility.

Q.3 Can you imagine a system of units in which time is not included?
no, but i sure as can imagine a system of base units in which "amount of substance",
"thermodynamic temperature", and "luminous intensity" are not included (they can be derived
from the base units) and one where electic charge replaces electric current as a base unit.
actually, now that i think about it: base units, if there is a unit speed (or some other rate of
change physical quantity) that one makes into a base unit, then time can be a derived unit. i think
that conceptually, time, length, mass, and charge are the "base" dimensions of physical quantity
of which nearly every other dimension of physical quantity can be derived from.

Q.4 Of the seven base units, only one the kilogram has a prefix. would it be wise to
redefine the mass of the platinum-iridium cylinder at the international bureau of weights
and measures as 1 g rather than 1kg?

The kilogram is the base unit of mass because electrical engineers in the late 19th century chose
a particular set of practical electrical units. ... However, by coincidence they were coherent with
m, kg, s. That is why the kilogram was chosen as the base unit of mass in the SI system, in 1960.

Q.5 What does the prefix “micro-“ signify in the words “microwave oven”? It has been
proposed that food that has been irradiated by gamma rays to lengthen its shelf life be
marked “picowaved. “What do you suppose that means?

The ‘micro-“ used in the microwave signifies the microwave radiation that has been used to
irradiate the food kept inside it. Microwave radiation is an electromagnetic wave whose
wavelength is in the range of 1 mm to 1 m. Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation whose
wavelength is less than 10-12 m. This shows that its wavelength is in the range of pico. Thus, the
oven that used gamma rays to irradiate food that has been kept inside is named picowaved. This
means it used a radiation of wavelength in the order of pico.

Q.7 Name several repetitive phenomena occurring in nature that could serve as
reasonable time standards.

Several repetitive phenomena occurring in nature that could serve as reasonable time standards
are:

Oscillating pendulum.

Oscillation of mass-spring system.

Oscillation of a quartz crystal.

The rotation of the Earth on its axis

The revolution of the Earth around the Sun.

Q.9 What criteria should be satisfied by a good clock?

A good clock should give standard time. It should not change its standardization with factors
such as temperature, physical dimensions. Any time standard should answer the fact that at what
time any event occurs and how long the events last. Any good clocks should correctly with go
with some astronomical observation like the time taken by the rotation of the earth around the
Sun.

Q.10 Five clocks are being tested in a laboratory. Exactly at noon, as determined by the
WWV time signal, on successive days of a week the clocks according to their relative value
as good timekeepers, best to worst. Justify your choice.

None of the clocks advance by exactly 24 h in a 24−h period but this is not the most important
criterion for judging their quality for measuring time intervals. What is important is that the
clock advance by the same amount in each 24−h period. The clock reading can then easily be
adjusted to give the correct interval. If the clock reading jumps around from one 24−h period to
another, it cannot be corrected since it would impossible to tell what the correction should be.
The following gives the corrections (in seconds) that determined by subtracting the clock reading
at the end of the interval from the clock reading at the beginning.

CLOCK Sun-Mon Mon-Tues Tues-Wed Wed-Thurs Thurs-Fri Fri-Sat

A −16 −16 −15 −17 −15 −15

B −3 +5 −10 +5 +6 −7

C −58 −58 −58 −58 −58 −58

D +67 +67 +67 +67 +67 +67

E +70 +55 +2 +20 +10 +10

Clocks C and D are both good timekeepers in the sense that each is consistent in its daily drift
(relative to WWF time); thus C and D are easily made perfect with simple and predictable
corrections. The correction for clock C is less than the correction for clock D. so we judge clock
C to be the nest and clock D to be the next best. The correction that must be applied to clock A is
in the range from 15 s to 17 s. For clock B it is the range from −5 s to +10 s for clock E it is in
the range from −70 s to −2 s. After C and D, A has the smallest range of correction B has the
next smallest range, and E has the greatest range. From best to worst, the tanking of the clocks is
C,D<A,B,E.

Q.11 From what you know about pendulums, cite the drawbacks to using the period of a
pendulum as a time standard.

 Air friction can change the time period.

 Due to increase in temperature length of pendulum increases and hence the time period
increases.
 Due to change in position from sea level gravitational acceleration changes hence time
period changes.

Q.12 How did Galileo know that the pendulum swings at the same frequency regardless
of the amplitude? Since pendulums were crucial to the building of the first clocks, Galileo
couldn’t have used a clock to find the answer.

Galileo essentially invented the concept of the quantitative experiment, so even the most
primitive measuring techniques would yield results that would have been considered meaningful.

In any case, the first mechanical clock had appeared some three centuries before Galileo and
things such as the dripping of water had been used for measuring time far before then. Galileo
began his investigation as a teenager, observing the swinging of chandeliers at a cathedral. He
used his pulse as the timekeeper.

So clocks were widely used before Galileo did his work using pendulums in his teen years.
These pendulums had quite long string lengths in many cases. Some taller than a man of the day.
What Galileo did was carry out and write down experiments that were repeatable to verify his
findings. Effectively using quantitative scientific and mathematical methods.
Rice repeated his experiments and the laws and links are below. Clocks were not required as the
discoveries are not time based.

 Pendulums nearly return to their release heights.

 All pendulums eventually come to rest with the lighter ones coming to rest faster.
 The period is independent of the bob weight.
 The period is independent of the amplitude.
 The square of the period varies directly with the length.

These early findings were used and expanded by Galileo to prove that amongst other things that
objects all fall at the same rate.

If, instead of a chandelier, you build a long pendulum with low friction and a heavy bob, then
isolate it from wind currents you don’t need a precise “clock” to get a precise result. Our purpose
made pendulum will retain the same swing amplitude for some time so you could use an hour
glass and rather than measure the time of a swing, you would count the number of swings during
a fixed time.

Q.14 On June 30, 1981, the minute extending from 10:59 to 11:00 a.m. was arbitrarily
lengthened to contain 61s.the last day of 1989 also lengthened by 1 s. such a leap second
occasionally introduced to compensate for the fact that, as measured by our atomic time
standard, the earth's rotation rate is slowly decreasing. why is it desirable to readjust our
clocks in this way?

Rotation of the earth is a bit of and every 4 year it has an extra day but some one more sec is
added.

Q.16 A radio station advertises that is “at 89.5 on your FM dial.” What does this
number means?

Radio frequency (RF) is any of the electromagnetic wave frequencies that vibrates in the range
extending from around 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which include those frequencies used in radio
communication.
The number 89.5 means to operate the radio receiver at the frequency of 89.5 kHz.

The advertisement made by the radio station that it is “at 89.5 on your FM dial” means the
receiver of the radio should tune to 89.5 kHz frequency. At this frequency, the receiver can
received signals sent by the transmitter of the radio station.

Q.16 Why there are no SI base units for area and volume?

The main reason for their lack is that there is no need of them. The derived units of square metre
and cubic metre are quite satisfactory, both for most day-to-day and for technical applications.

There are non-SI metric units for both area and volume, which are generally accepted.

For example, metric but non-SI units of area include the Are (100 square metres, and generally
only used in multiples of 100 are as the hectare, for land measurement); and the Barn (1e-28
square meters, a specialized unit for neutron capture cross section area).

The common volume measurement of the litre is a useful unit in daily and technical life, and is
an accepted but non-SI unit.

Q.19 Can length be measured along a curved line? If yes, then explain?

1. Yes, if you have a representation of the curved line, i.e. its mathematical function, in
terms of an independent variable, let’s say time t. Then you could use the integral path to
obtain the line’s length.
Once you got the representation of the curve, called ‘parameterized function’. The rest is
getting a function associated to the first, that’s ‘normal’ through the whole path to it.
Then develop algebra to reduce the integral path expression into a more common
multiple integral.
2. You can buy flat steel measuring tapes that will follow a reasonable curve, or you can use
a cloth measuring tape like the ones tailors use.

Q.20 When the meter bar was taken to be the standard of length, its temperature was
specified. Can length be called a fundamental property if another physical quantity such as
temperature must be specified in choosing a standard?
The length of an object changes with temperature but the unit for measuring length (i.e., metre)
has now been defined in terms of wavelength of light. This is not affected by temperature.
Hence, the choice of length as a fundamental units is justified.

Q.25 If someone told you that every dimension of every object had shrunk to half its
former value overnight, how could you refute this statement?

 To answer this question one must need to know the property that the standard unit is
invariant. Now, let’s assume that every dimension halved overnight. So, the meter bar -
international standard unit of length (which was kept at the international bureau of
weights and measures) also became half of its former length. So, it is clear that if
everything ever known measured half of its former value, one will not know the truth
(one may not be able to measure something, using a scale and possible say its half its
original length). The meter is defined { at present} as the length of the path travelled by
light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/(3x10^8) of a second.
 Assuming everything can actually be compressed, and, as others have noted, we can live
at that scale, we still have a big problem with density. Presumably the masses of
everything would be unchanged and everything would be 8 times denser. Bridges and
buildings would collapse, planes would crash, ships would sink, nuclear weapons might
explode (I’m not that clear on nuke physics, but I understand inducing fission has to do
with density). So yeah, you’d notice.
Even if you mean everything shrinks and adjusts according, (i.e. the universal constants
adjust to this scale in an appropriate manner) we could still tell because everything would
suddenly be twice as far away. And if you mean the whole visible universe shrinks (in
which case you’re talking about the dimensions themselves shrinking, not just the
physical sizes of objects), then your question is essentially meaningless as the shrinking
bit would only be apparent to an observer from outside our universe. So I guess the
physical answer would be “Yes, you can tell,” and if you’re getting metaphysical, then
“No, you can’t.
Q.27 Why do we find it useful to have two standards of mass, kilogram, and 12c
atom?
 Kilogram is defined for usage in our everyday applications while 12C mass is useful for
nuclear physics needs.

Q.31 Critics of the metric system often cloud the issue by saying things such as:
“Instead of buying 1 1b of butter you will have to ask for 0.454 kg of butter.” The
implication is that life would be more complicated. How might you refute this?

The SI unit of mass is kilogram (kg). In British unit, the unit of mass if pound (lb).

The relation between kilogram and pound is

1 lb = 0.456 kg

Thus, buying of1 lb of butter is just equivalent to buying 0.456 kg of butter. It will not change
the amount of butter bought. The only thing is that it depends on which countries are you buying
butter. Different countries have different metric system for measuring units.

Therefore, implication of different metric system will not make life more complicated.

Motion in one Dimension

Q.1 Can two vectors having different magnitudes be combined to give a zero resultant?
Can three vectors?

No, two vectors with different magnitude can never give a zero resultant. This is because the
effect of vectors cancels out only when they act in the opposite direction and have the same
magnitude.
Yes, three vectors with different magnitude can give a zero resultant. As an example consider

vectors , and  , such that the resultant vector  

is .  .
Therefore the three vectors with different magnitude can give zero resultant.

Q.2 Can a vector have zero magnitude if one of its components is not zero?

No, a vector cannot have zero magnitude if one of its components is not zero.

Consider a vector  such that its magnitude is:

It can be seen from this equation that if any of  or  is non-zero, the magnitude of vector  
will also be non-zero.

Q.3 Can the sum of the magnitudes of two vectors ever be equal to the magnitude of the
sum of these two vectors?
Q.4 Can the magnitude of the difference between two vectors ever be greater than the
magnitude of either vector? Can it be greater than the magnitude of their sum? Give
examples.

Q.5 Suppose that d=d1+d2. Did this mean that we must have either d is greater or equal
to d1 or d is greater or equal to d2? if not explain why?

If d1 and d2 both are negative, in this case your d will be even lesser then both d1 and d2 and
hence, in this case we d will not be greater then or equal to either d1 or d2.

Q.6 Can the speed of a particle ever be negative? If so, give an example; if not, explain
why.
The speed of the particle can never be negative.
This can be seen from the definition of the speed given as:

The dependency of speed on the distance travelled by the particle and the time it takes to travel
the distance assures that the speed is non-negative because neither the value of distance can be
negative nor can be the value of time it takes to travel that distance.

Q.7 Does average velocity have a direction associated with it?

Yes, the average velocity has the direction associated with it.
By definition, the average velocity in any interval is defined to be the displacement i.e. the
change in position divided by the time interval during which the displacement occurs.
Mathematically,

Also, the time interval  being scalar, the average velocity vector  points in the same
direction as the displacement vector .

Q.9 Instead of the definition given in Eq. 2-13, we might have defined average speed as
the magnitude of the average velocity. Are the definitions different? Give examples to
support your answer.

The magnitude of average velocity is not the average speed because for a particular interval, the
average velocity depends on the displacement of the particle; while on the other hand, the
average speed depends on the distance travelled by the particle.
From definition, we have

Therefore, for a particular time interval, it is not necessary that the distance traveled by the
particle is equal to its displacement. Thus, the average speed cannot be taken to be as the
magnitude of average velocity.
Say for instance, a car changes its position from some initial point x1 to a point x2 in
10 sec such that the magnitude of displacement is say 1 km. However the distance travelled by
the car during the same interval is 2 km. Therefore the magnitude of the average velocity of the
car is the magnitude of displacement divided by the time i.e 0.1km/s. .
The average speed of the car is the distance traveled by the car in elapsed time i.e. .0.2 km/s.
Thus, one can easily see that the magnitude of the average velocity does not match to that with
the average speed.

Q.10 A racing car, in a qualifying two-lap heat, covers the first lap with an average
speed of 90 mi/h The driver wants to speed up during the second lap so that the average
speed of the two laps together will be 180 mi/h. Show that it cannot be done.

Given:

Average speed of the racing car till 1st lap s1 = 90 mi/ h .

Average speed of the racing car till 2nd lap s2 = 180 mi/ h
The average speed of the racing car is given as:

Let us assume that the distance traveled by the racing car in one lap in time t is x .
Therefore the average speed ( say s1)of the racing car in the first lap is given as:

Substituting the given value of s1 , we calculate the time taken by the racing car to travel a
distance x as:
Let us assume that the time taken by the racing car to travel the distance 2x to attain the average
speed of 180 mi /h be t1.
Therefore the average speed (say s2)of the racing car till the second lap is given as:

Substituting the given value of s2, we calculate the time taken by the racing car to travel a
distance 2x to attain the average speed of 180 mi/h as:

Therefore we find that if the racing car want to attain the average speed of 180 mi/h till the
second lap, the time in which it must complete the two laps is t’. However as calculated above,
with the average speed of 90 mi/ h, the car has already consumed that much time and just
managed to complete one lap.
Mathematically,
t’ = t
Therefore it is not possible for the racing car to attain the average speed of 180 mi/ h by the end
second lap.

Q.11 Bob beats Judy by 10-m in a 100-m dash. Bob, claiming to give Judy an equal
chance, agrees to race her again but to start from 10 m behind the starting line. Does this
really give Judy an equal chance?

Given:
Length of the track, x = 100 m.
Distance by which Bob beats Judy, d = 10 m.
We assume that the average speed of the Bob and the Judy is maintained in every race.
Let us assume that the average speed of the Bob be represented by vb and the time he takes to run
100 m is represented by t .
Therefore the average speed of the bob when he runs x meters is:

Substituting the value of x, we have

 …… (1)
Let us assume that the average speed of the Judy be represented by v1. By the time Bob run
meters, the Judy could run only x-d meters.
Therefore the average speed of Judy is given as:

Substituting the value of x , we have

 …… (2)

Now we consider the situation when Bob decides to start 10 meters behind the starting line.
Therefore the distance traveled by the Bob now is x+10 meters.
Assuming that the Bob maintains his average speed as vb, we can calculate the time (say t’)taken
by the Bob to reach the finish line as:
Substituting the value of vb from equation (1) and the given value of x , we have

Judy, on the other hand has to travel distance x with the same average speed, and therefore the
time (say t”) after which he will reach the finish line can be calculated as:

Substituting the value of vj from equation (2) and the given value of x, we have

Thus we find that t’‘ > t’.

Therefore with same average speed and under the condition that the Bob started from
10 meters behind the starting line, Bob will still manage to reach the finish line earlier than Judy.

Q.12 When the velocity is constant, can the average velocity over any time interval differ
from the instantaneous velocity at any instant? If so, give an example; if not, explain why.

For constant velocity, the average velocity of a particle between any time interval will be the
same as the instantaneous velocity at any instant.

It is important to note that the velocity will be constant, if the particle moves in straight line and
takes no curves. Therefore the position versus time graph for the particle will be a straight line.
Hence, the slope of the position time graph, representing the instantaneous velocity of the
particle will always be constant.
Consider for example, the motion of the car along a straight road, such that the car moves with
constant velocity i.e. the car travel equal displacement in some fixed time interval. As the car
takes no turn, its velocity vector always point in the same direction and the length of the vector
also remains the same.

The instantaneous velocity of the car at any instant is the slope of the position time curve at a
particular point. As stated above, the position time curve for the car is a straight line. Therefore
its slope at any point will be same and equal to the average velocity.