General Physics
The Physical Quantities and Measurement
A physical quantity is a property of a
material or system that can be quantified by
measurement.  Measurement is essential for us to
Units is a standard measurement in terms
of which other measurement is expressed.
Measurement is a process of detecting
an unknown physical quantity by standard
quantity.
Unit of measurement is a uncertainty is referred to as Error. Accuracy and
definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and
adopted by convention or by law that is used as a
standard for measurement of the same kind of
quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be
expressed as a multiple of the unit of
measurement.
Two Types of Physical Quantities
 Base Quantity is chosen and arbitrarily
defined.
 Derived Quantity is defined based on a
combination of base quantities and has a
derived unit that is the exponent, product or
quotient of these base units.  does not give any information about the
Two Major Systems of Units
 SI Units is also known as the metric system.
The acronym “SI” is derived from the French
Système International. SI Units means
International System of Units.
Base Quantities Name of Unit Symbol of Unit
length metre m The thermometer has an accuracy of ±0.5, i.e. ±0.5
mass kilogram kg
time second s
electric current ampere A instrument is negligible. But if the reading is more
temperature kelvin K or less than 0.5ºC, it is considered a high-value
amount of substance mole mol
 English Units is also known as the imperial
or customary system.
 area = m2
 density = g/ml
 speed = m/s
 acceleration = m/s or m/s2
Metric Prefixes
SI units are part of the metric
system. The metric system is convenient for
scientific and engineering calculations because the
units are categorized by factors of 10. The table
below gives metric prefixes and symbols used to
denote various factors of 10.
Scientific Notation is a mathematical
expression used to represent a decimal number
between 1 and 10 multiplied by ten, so you can
write large numbers using less digits. 
Unit Conversion and Dimensional
Analysis is often necessary to convert from one
type of unit to another.
Example: Convert 80 meters
(m) to kilometers (km).
Uncertainties and Deviation in Measurements
understand the external world and through millions
of years of life. It requires tools that provide
scientists with a quantity. The problem here is that
the result of every measurement by any measuring
instrument contains some uncertainty. This
precision are two important factors to consider
while taking measurements.
Accuracy is the ability of the instrument
to measure the accurate value. In other words, the
closeness of the measured value to a standard or
true value. Accuracy is obtained by taking small
readings. The small reading reduces the error of
the calculation. The accuracy of the system is
classified into three types as follows:
 Point Accuracy is where the accuracy of the
instrument only at a particular point on its
scale. It is important to note that this accuracy
general accuracy of the instrument.
 Accuracy as Percentage of Scale Range.
The uniform scale range determines the
accuracy of a measurement.
Example: Consider a
thermometer having the scale range up to 500 ºC.
percent of increase or decrease in the value of the
error.
 Accuracy as Percentage of True Value.
Such type of accuracy of the instruments is
determined by identifying the measured value
regarding their true value. The accuracy of
the instruments is neglected up to ±0.5
percent from the true value.
Precision refers to the closeness of two or
more measurements to each other. If you weigh a
given substance five times and get 3.2 kg each
time, then your measurement is very precise but
not necessarily accurate. Precision is independent
of accuracy. The below example will tell you
about how you can be precise but not accurate and
vice versa. Precision is sometimes separated into:
 Repeatability is the variation arising when
the conditions are kept identical and repeated
measurements are taken during a short time
period.
 Reproducibility is when the variation
arises using the same measurement process
among different instruments and operators,
and over longer time periods.
Conclusion. Accuracy is the degree of
closeness between a measurement and the
measurement’s true value. Precision is the degree
to which repeated measurements under the same
conditions are unchanged.
 General Physics
arises from the physics of the process being
measured and the device used for the
measurement, even when the utmost care is
taken during the measurement. Because such
error is random, we expect equal probability
that a given measurement fall above the
"true" value as below it.
 Systematic error - arises when something in
the measuring process affects all
measurements in an equal or consistent way
(examples include improper instrument
calibration, alignment issues, poor electrical
contact, etc.). Systematic errors are avoidable
down to the level of the random errors in that
the experimenter can remove such errors by
more vigilant attention to instrument
1st Example: All the arrows are near the
calibration, parallax, proper electrical
bull’s eye, so all the measurements would be near
contacts, etc.
the Accepted Value, so it’s High
To simplify these concepts, we can use
Accuracy. All the arrows are
accuracy and their precision, which we will define
near one another, so your
by the shot patterns of a rifle target. First, accuracy
measurements are highly
is related to systematic error result, and tells you
repeatable, so High Precision as
how close you are to the “true” values, or the
well. So the answer is #1.
values you are looking for. In the figure below, we
see the shots on the left target are not located near
the target center. This is a low accuracy. The target
2nd Example: Just like in the previous
on the right has a midpoint value very close to the
example all the arrows are close
target center, so we would say it has a high
to one another so it is still highly
accuracy. Now, as you have already noticed, there
accurate. However, now the
is a difference between the scatter of both graphs.
measurements aren’t near the
This scatter is related to the precision, which is
accepted value, so it is low
related to random error, and describes how
accuracy. So the answer is #2.
repeatable an experiment is based on how much
scatter it produces. In our target below, we see that
3rd Example: All the arrows are far from
the left system has a low amount of scatter because
one another, so the precision is low. If you take the
all the points are located very close together,
average of all of the arrows or measurements, then
which means it has high precision. The target on
you actually get an average
the left has points all over the page, which would
measurement that is close to the
indicate it has low precision.
accepted value. So the answer is
#4, High Accuracy and Low
Precision.

4th Example: There is high accuracy

because the arrow or measurement is near the
bull’s eye oraccepted value.
There is only one measurement
so we can’t compare it to any of
the other measurements so we
can’t determine Precision.

To find your percent error, you will need to use the

following equation:

The accepted value is the true or correct

value (what you SHOULD have gotten).
The measured value is what YOU
measured or calculated yourself.
Notice that the numerator is in absolute
value form. You should not have any negative
percent error values.
Types of Error Accuracy vs. Precision
The two types of error we will study
today are (1) random error and (2) systematic
error.
 Random errors are those errors that can be
revealed statistically in the analysis of
repeated measurements. Random error is a
fundamental feature of measurements that