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PHYS 211
Wize Physics 1
Textbook
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Foundations
01 Units
Units

Some quantities have a lot of different units you can use. For example, for distance, we could use
meters, yards, feet, miles, angstroms, astronomical units, parsecs, light-years...

For communication, it helps to have a standard set of units. In physics we use base SI units as
follows (SI: systeme internationale):

From these fundamental base SI units, we can obtain derived units.

Examples:

● Area is length squared, derived SI unit of ( m2 )

● Speed is distance per time, derived SI unit of ( m/s)

● Force derived SI unit is ( kg m ), which is given a special name Newton ( N ).

s2

Pre xes

To represent orders of magnitude, we can add pre xes to any unit to scale them to the settings
of our measurements.

 
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E X AM TIP

Always include units in your nal answer, otherwise you are not giving a physical
quantity. If your nal answer does not have the right units, then you may have made a
mistake in your calculation!

Examples:

Convert 4.56 km/h into m/s.

Convert 1.63 Ms to μs.

Dimensional Analysis

● Dimensional Analysis is a method of checking the dimensional consistency of a physical

equation.

● Two sides of an equation must be equal numerically, but also in dimension.

● This can be used to nd the unit of a new physical quantity.

Example Problem

Example: Unit Conversion

 
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It's important to be able to convert between different types of units. Let's practice with a few
examples.

a) How many seconds are in a year?

b) The speedometer in your car is in km/h. You go on a road trip to the US, where speed limits are
posted in mph (miles per hour). You're on a highway with a 70 mph speed limit. If you are driving
110 km/h, are you speeding? (1 mile is 1.61 km.)

02 Signi cant Figures

Signi cant Figures

Signi cant gures indicate the precision of a measurement and determine how precisely a
calculated number can be represented.

Rules for identifying signi cant gures:

1. All non-zero numbers are signi cant.

2. Place holder zeros and leading zeros (zeros on the left of the number) are not signi cant.

3. Extra zeros after a decimal point are signi cant.

4. Zeros between two other signi cant gures are signi cant.

5. All digits in scienti c notation are signi cant.

 
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WATC H O UT!

Counting numbers are exact, and have no uncertainty. If I have 4 goats, I am absolutely sure
that I have 4 goats. Unless I'm very bad at counting things.
This means we don't assign signi cant gures to these values.

Examples:

0.0045 has signi cant gures

234000 has signi cant gures
234000.0 has signi cant gures
5
3.400 × 10 has signi cant gures

Signi cant Figures in Calculations

If sig gs tell us how precise a number is, what happens when we do calculations with them?
How many sig gs will be in our nal answer?

WIZ E C O NC E P T

A number should not get more precise just because we are doing a mathematical operation
to it. Always make sure you are looking at the least reliable digit, or the least reliable number.

Addition and subtraction

Write your answer to the decimal point of the last s.f. of the least reliable value.

Examples:

1200.0cm +  12.24cm =  1212.24cm → 1212.2cm

57.23 o C − 273.2 o C + 69 o C = −146.97 o C → −147 o C

 
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Multiplication and division

Write your answer to the same number of s.f. as the value with the least number of s.f.

Examples:

1200.0cm × 12.24cm =  14688cm → 14690cm

57.23 o C × 273.2 o C ÷ 69 o C = 226.5976...o C → 230 o C

WIZ E TIP

Try to keep as many s.f. as you can until the nal answer. Then round them off to the correct
number of s.f.

Example Problem

Examples: Signi cant Figures

Here are some examples to clarify signi cant gures.

1. How many signi cant gures are in the below numbers

a. 1128.01001km
b. 002.54min
c. 23.5m/s
d. 1990K

2. How many signi cant gures are in the nal answer?

(2.3 + 23) × 210.3

3. How many signi cant gures are in the nal answer?

$21.02 + $1.31
3 shirts

 
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03 Scienti c Notation

Scienti c Notation

Instead of writing very large or very small number we can express these numbers as a number
between -10 and positive 10 (exclusively) multiplied by 10n

Write the following in scienti c notation

584=

4 529 000=

78 000 000=

0.00000128=

Scienti c Notation in Calculations

You want to make the values you are adding or subtracting have the same exponent

Example:
7.0x107-6.0x105
We can either change both exponents to 7 or to 5

For multiplying #s in scienti c notation, we add exponents and multiply the #s: (ans in scienti c
notation)

Example:
3.0x108 x 4.0x106

 
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Finally, to divide #s in scienti c notation, we subtract exponents and divide the #s: (ans in
scienti c notation)

Example:
1.2x1012 / 6x106

 
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