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General
Physics1
Quarter 1 – Module 1:
Title: Units of Measurements
12
General
Physics1
Quarter 1 – Module 1:
Units of Measurements
Introductory Message
For the facilitator:
This learning resource hopes to engage the learners into guided and independent
learning activities at their own pace and time. Furthermore, this also aims to help
learners acquire the needed 21st century skills while taking into consideration
their needs and circumstances.
In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the body
of the module:
As a facilitator you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this
module. You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing
them to manage their own learning. Furthermore, you are expected to encourage
and assist the learners as they do the tasks included in the module.
For the learner:
The hand is one of the most symbolized part of the human body. It is often used
to depict skill, action and purpose. Through our hands we may learn, create and
accomplish. Hence, the hand in this learning resource signifies that you as a
learner is capable and empowered to successfully achieve the relevant
competencies and skills at your own pace and time. Your academic success lies
in your own hands!
This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful opportunities
for guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You will be
enabled to process the contents of the learning resource while being an active
learner.
1. Use the module with care. Do not put unnecessary mark/s on any part of
the module. Use a separate sheet of paper in answering the exercises.
4. Observe honesty and integrity in doing the tasks and checking your
answers.
6. Return this module to your teacher/facilitator once you are through with it.
If you encounter any difficulty in answering the tasks in this module, do not
hesitate to consult your teacher or facilitator. Always bear in mind that you
are not alone.
We hope that through this material, you will experience meaningful learning
and gain deep understanding of the relevant competencies. You can do it!
Lesso
n
Units of Measurement
1
What I Need to Know
This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
master the Units and Measurements. The scope of this module permits it to be
used in many different learning situations. The language used recognizes the
diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons are arranged to follow the
standard sequence of the course. But the order in which you read them can be
changed to correspond with the textbook you are now using.
Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate sheet
of paper.
4. Covert 300C to 0F
a. -1.11 c. 271.89
b. 86 d. 359
Lesso Units of
n
1 Measurement
Physicists, like other scientists, make observations and ask basic
questions. For example, how big is an object? How much mass does it have? How
far did it travel? To answer these questions, they make measurements with
various instruments (e.g., meter stick, balance, stopwatch, etc.).
What’s In
How many millimeters (mm), centimeters (cm), inches (in), foot (ft)?
Physical Quantities
All physical quantities in the International System of Units (SI) are
expressed in terms of combinations of seven fundamental physical units, which
are units for: length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, amount of a
substance, and luminous intensity.
Table 2 Metric Prefixes and symbols used to denote the different various factors of 10 in
the metric system
Exampl Example
Prefi Symbo Example Exampl
Value e Descriptio
x l Name e Value
Symbol n
Distance
18 18
Exa E 10 Exameter Em 10 m light travels
in a century
30 million
Peta P 1015 Petasecond Ps 1015 s
years
Powerful
12 12
Tera T 10 Terawatt TW 10 W laser
output
A
9 9
Giga G 10 Gigahertz GHz 10 Hz microwave
frequency
High
6 6
Mega M 10 Megacurie MCi 10 Ci radioactivit
y
About 6/10
Kilo K 103 Kilometer Km 103 m
mile
hecto
H 102 Hectoliter hL 102 L 26 gallons
r
Teaspoon of
Deka Da 101 Dekagram Dag 101 g
butter
100 (=
____ ____
1)
Less than
Deci D 10–1 Deciliter dL 10–1 L
half a soda
thickness
Flea at its
Mili M 10–3 Millimeter Mm 10–3 m
shoulder
Detail in
Micro µ 10–6 Micrometer µm 10–6 m
microscope
Small speck
Nano N 10–9 Nanogram Ng 10–9 g
of dust
Small
–12 –12
Pico P 10 Picofarad pF 10 F capacitor in
radio
Time light
takes to
Atto A 10–18 Attosecond As 10–18 s
cross an
atom
The metric system is convenient because conversions between metric units can
be done simply by moving the decimal place of a number. This is because the
metric prefixes are sequential powers of 10. There are 100 centimeters in a
meter, 1000 meters in a kilometer, and so on. In nonmetric systems, such as U.S.
customary units, the relationships are less simple—there are 12 inches in a foot,
5,280 feet in a mile, 4 quarts in a gallon, and so on. Another advantage of the
metric system is that the same unit can be used over extremely large ranges of
values simply by switching to the most-appropriate metric prefix. For example,
distances in meters are suitable for building construction, but kilometers are
used to describe road construction. Therefore, with the metric system, there is
no need to invent new units when measuring very small or very large objects—
you just have to move the decimal point (and use the appropriate prefix).
What is It
Now we can set up our unit conversion. We will write the units that we have and
then multiply them by the conversion factor (1 km/1,000m) = 1, so we are
simply multiplying 80m by 1:
x × 10y
In this format x is the value of the measurement with all placeholder zeros
removed. In the example above, x is 8.4. The x is multiplied by a factor, 10 y,
which indicates the number of placeholder zeros in the measurement.
Placeholder zeros are those at the end of a number that is 10 or greater, and at
the beginning of a decimal number that is less than 1. In the example above, the
factor is 1014. This tells you that you should move the decimal point 14 positions
to the right, filling in placeholder zeros as you go. In this case, moving the
decimal point 14 places creates only 13 placeholder zeros, indicating that the
actual measurement value is 840,000,000,000,000.
Numbers that are fractions can be indicated by scientific notation as well.
Consider the number 0.0000045. Its scientific notation is 4.5 × 10–6. Its scientific
notation has the same format
x × 10y
Here, x is 4.5. However, the value of y in the 10y factor is negative, which
indicates that the measurement is a fraction of 1. Therefore, we move the
decimal place to the left, for a negative y. In our example of 4.5 × 10–6, the
decimal point would be moved to the left six times to yield the original number,
which would be 0.0000045.
What’s More
1. 150 cm to m
2. 360 mm to m
3. 2100 cm3 to l
4. 1.2 GV to V
5. 4.6 ms to s
6. 450 K to 0F
1. Physical quantities are unit that describes the size of the quantity.
There are number that gives us the count of times the unit is
contained in the quantity being measured.
2. Physical Quantities are classified as fundamental and derived quantities.
Fundamental Quantities are the simplest form. Derived Quantities are
combination of fundamental Quantities.
3. Systems of measurement are Metric System of System International (SI)
and English System or British System of measurement.
4. Conversion of unit common method used is the factor-label method.
5. Scientific Notation is a convenient way of writing very small or very large
numbers. To write in scientific notation, follow the form N x 10 a, where N
is a number between 1 and 10, but not 10 itself, a is an integer (positive
or negative number)
What I Can Do
Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen
letter on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Covert 6 721 millimeters to meters.
a. 6.721 c. 672 100
b. 67.21 d. 6 721 000
4. Covert 300C to 0F
a. -1.11 c. 271.89
b. 86 d. 359
Activity 1.3
1. 12.20C
2. 39.170C
3. 1.98 lb
Lesso
n
Accuracy and Precision
2
What I Need to Know
This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
master the accuracy and precision. The scope of this module permits it to be
used in many different learning situations. The language used recognizes the
diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons are arranged to follow the
standard sequence of the course. But the order in which you read them can be
changed to correspond with the textbook you are now using.
What I Know
Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate sheet
of paper.
1. It is described as the degree of how close the measurements are to
the true value.
a. accuracy c. reliability
b. precision d. validity
9. Looking at the above rifle target, how would you describe the shooting
of this contestant?
a. accurate and imprecise c. inaccurate and precise
b. accurate and precise d. inaccurate and
imprecise
10. Which of the following will allow measurement of a liquid's volume
with the greatest precision?
a. 50 ml cylinder graduated in 1ml increments
b. 100 ml cylinder graduated in 0.5 ml increments
c. 100 ml cylinder graduated in 1 ml increments
d. 200 ml cylinder graduated in 5 ml increments
Lesso
n
Accuracy and Precision
2
Science is based on experimentation that requires good measurements. The
validity of a measurement can be described in terms of its accuracy and its
precision.
What’s In
A student measures a test tube, she reported 15 g in mass, but the actual mass
of the test tube was 32 g. Is the data accurate?
A student measures the following temperature 40.3 0C, 410C and 400C. Is the
data given precise?
What’s New
Accuracy vs Precision
What is It
Accuracy
It is how close a measurement is to the correct value for that measurement. For
example, let us say that you are measuring the length of standard piece of bond
paper. The packaging in which you purchased the paper states that it is 11
inches long, and suppose this stated value is correct. You measure the length of
the paper three times and obtain the following measurements: 11.1 inches, 11.2
inches, and 10.9 inches. These measurements are quite accurate because they
are very close to the correct value of 11.0 inches. In contrast, if you had obtained
a measurement of 12 inches, your measurement would not be very accurate.
This is why measuring instruments are calibrated based on a known
measurement. If the instrument consistently returns the correct value of the
known measurement, it is safe for use in finding unknown values.
Precision
It states how well repeated measurements of something generate the same or
similar results. Therefore, the precision of measurements refers to how close
together the measurements are when you measure the same thing several
times. One way to analyze the precision of measurements would be to determine
the range, or difference between the lowest and the highest measured values. In
the case of the printer paper measurements, the lowest value was 10.9 inches
and the highest value was 11.2 inches. Thus, the measured values deviated from
each other by, at most, 0.3 inches. These measurements were reasonably
precise because they varied by only a fraction of an inch. However, if the
measured values had been 10.9 inches, 11.1 inches, and 11.9 inches, then the
measurements would not be very precise because there is a lot of variation from
one measurement to another.
The measurements in the paper example are both accurate and precise, but in
some cases, measurements are accurate but not precise, or they are precise but
not accurate. Let us consider a GPS system that is attempting to locate the
position of a restaurant in a city. Think of the restaurant location as existing at
the center of a bull’s-eye target. Then think of each GPS attempt to locate the
restaurant as a black dot on the bull’s eye.
What’s More
Assessment
Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on
a separate sheet of paper.
7. Four students each measured the mass of one 1.43 g sample four
times. The results in the data above indicate that the data collected by
reflect the greatest accuracy and precision.
a. Student A b. Student B c. Student C d. Student D
Trial Measurement
1 1.29
2 1.93
3 0.88
Additional Activities
A grocery store sells 5-lb bags of mangoes. You purchase four bags over the
course of a month and weigh the mangoes each time. You obtain the following
measurements:
Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate sheet
of paper.
2. April forgot to calibrate her analytical balance before she measured the
mass of her reactants in a chemistry experiment. She committed
78% percentage error in her measurement. What type of
measurement error did she commit?
a. human error c. random error
b. parallax error d. systematic error
a. accuracy in measurement
c. precision in measurement
a. accuracy in measurement
c. precision in measurement
c. random errors
d. systematic errors
Lesso
n Random and Systematic
Error
3
All experimental uncertainty is due to either random errors or systematic errors.
Random errors are statistical fluctuations (in either direction) in the measured
data due to the precision limitations of the measurement device.
What’s In
Random errors
It is usually result from the experimenter’s inability to take the same
measurement in exactly the same way to get exact the same number.
Systematic errors
There are reproducible inaccuracies that are consistently in the same direction.
Systematic errors are often due to a problem which persists throughout the
entire experiment. Note that systematic and random errors refer to problems
associated with making measurements. Mistakes made in the calculations or in
reading the instrument are not considered in error analysis. It is assumed that
the experimenters are careful and competent!
What is It
Instrumental Error
Environmental Error
Observational Error
Assessment
Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on
a separate sheet of paper.
2. April forgot to calibrate her analytical balance before she measured the
mass of her reactants in a chemistry experiment. She committed
78% percentage error in her measurement. What type of
measurement error did she commit?
a. human error c. random error
b. parallax error d. systematic error
a. accuracy in measurement
c. precision in measurement
c. precision in measurement
c. random errors
d. systematic errors
Additional Activities
A grocery store sells 5-lb bags of mangoes. You purchase four bags over the
course of a month and weigh the mangoes each time. You obtain the following
measurements:
Answer Key
Assessment What's More What I Know
1. C Length = 15 cm 1. C
2. D 2. D
Width = 22 cm
3. B 3. B
4. B Height = 1 cm 4. B
5. A Volume = 330 cm3 5. A
6. B 6. B
7. B 7. B
8. B 8. B
9. A 9. A
10. D 10. D
Lesso
n Estimate Error Using
4 Variance
What I Need to Know
This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
master the estimate error using variances. The scope of this module permits it to
be used in many different learning situations. The language used recognizes the
diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons are arranged to follow the
standard sequence of the course. But the order in which you read them can be
changed to correspond with the textbook you are now using.
Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate sheet
of paper.
a. 3.16% c. 6.71%
b. 5.26% d. 7.02%
2. What is the sample standard deviation from the data given 12, 13,
29, 18, 61, 35, 21?
3. If a number is added to a set that is far away from the mean how
does this affect standard deviation?
6. Alec measured the width and height of a rectangle, but was only
able to measure them to the nearest centimeter. He recorded the
width as 8 cm and the height as 5 cm. Which of the following is true
for the area A cm2 of the rectangle?
a. 40 c. 33.75 A 46.75
b. 39.5 A 40.5 d. 33.75 A 46.75
7. Benny measured the width and height of a rectangle, but was only
able to measure them to the nearest foot. He recorded the width as 12
feet and the height as 5 feet. Which of the following is true for the
area A ft2 of the rectangle?
a. 51.75 A 68.75 c. A = 60
b. 51.75 A 68.75 d. 59.5 A 60.5
10. Kyle wanted to find the area of a circle. He measured the radius of
the circle as 5.4 cm. Later, the actual radius of the circle was more
accurately measured as 5.35 cm. What is the relative error in his area
calculation to the nearest thousandth?
a. .018 c. .020
b. .019 d. .022
a. 1% b. 5% c. 8% d.
11%
a. 2% b. 4% c. 7% d. 10%
Lesso
n Estimate Error Using
4 Variance
What’s In
But ... when measuring we don't know the actual value! So we use the maximum
possible error.
What happened to the ± ...? Well, we just want the size (the absolute value) of
the difference.
The Relative Error is the Absolute Error divided by the actual measurement.
x1 + x2 + +
Average (mean) = xN
N
For this situation, the best estimate of the period is the average, or mean.
Whenever possible, repeat a measurement several times and average the
results. This average is generally the best estimate of the "true" value (unless
the data set is skewed by one or more outliers which should be examined to
determine if they are bad data points that should be omitted from the average or
valid measurements that require further investigation). Generally, the more
repetitions you make of a measurement, the better this estimate will be, but be
careful to avoid wasting time taking more measurements than is necessary for
the precision required.
This average is the best available estimate of the width of the piece of paper, but
it is certainly not exact. We would have to average an infinite number of
measurements to approach the true mean value, and even then, we are not
guaranteed that the mean value is accurate because there is
still some systematic error from the measuring tool, which can never be
calibrated perfectly. So how do we express the uncertainty in our average value?
One way to express the variation among the measurements is to use
the average deviation. This statistic tells us on average (with 50% confidence)
how much the individual measurements vary from the mean.
|x1 − x| + |x2 − x| + +|
d=
xN − x|
N
However, the standard deviation is the most common way to characterize the
spread of a data set. The standard deviation is always slightly greater than
the average deviation, and is used because of its association with the normal
distribution that is frequently encountered in statistical analyses.
STANDARD DEVIATION
1 Sum all the measurements and divide by N to get the average, or mean.
4 Divide this result by (N − 1) and take the square root. We can write out the
formula for the standard deviation as follows. Let the N measurements be
called x1, x2, ..., xN. Let the average of the N values be called x.
Then each deviation is given by δxi = xi − x, for i = 1, 2, , N.
2
N)
(N − 1)
In our previous example, the average width x is 31.19 cm. The deviations
are: The average deviation is: d = 0.086 cm.
The standard deviation is:
s= (0.14)2 + (0.04)2 + (0.07)2 + (0.17)2 +
(0.01)2
5−1
= 0.12 cm.
The significance of the standard deviation is this: if you now make one more
measurement using the same meter stick, you can reasonably expect (with
about 68% confidence) that the new measurement will be within 0.12 cm of
the estimated average of 31.19 cm. In fact, it is reasonable to use the
standard deviation as the uncertainty associated with this single new
measurement. However, the uncertainty of the average value is the standard
deviation of the mean, which is always less than the standard deviation (see
next section). Consider an example where 100 measurements of a quantity
were made. The average or mean value was 10.5 and the standard deviation
was s = 1.83. The figure below is a histogram of the 100 measurements,
which shows how often a certain range of values was measured. For example,
in 20 of the measurements, the value was in the range 9.5 to 10.5, and most
of the readings were close to the mean value of 10.5. The standard
deviation s for this set of measurements is roughly how far from the average
value most of the readings fell. For a large enough sample, approximately
68% of the readings will be within one standard deviation of the mean value,
95% of the readings will be in the interval x ± 2 s, and nearly all (99.7%) of
readings will lie within 3 standard deviations from the mean. The smooth
curve superimposed on the histogram is the gaussian or normal distribution
predicted by theory for measurements involving random errors. As more and
more measurements are made, the histogram will more closely follow the
bell-shaped gaussian curve, but the standard deviation of the distribution will
remain approximately the same.
What’s More
Calculate the average and standard deviation of the given width of paper. Enter
your calculated deviation per observation on Column 3.
Average: ___________
Standard Deviation: ______________
Computation:
Interpretation:
What I Have Learned
4. The percent error is the absolute value of the error divided by the accepted
value and multiplied by 100%.
% Error=|experimental value − accepted value | accepted value×100%
What I Can Do
Determine the accepted value, experimental value of your food intake in a
day I terms of calories. Calculate the percentage error.
Assessment
Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on
a separate sheet of paper.
a. 3.16% c. 6.71%
b. 5.26% d. 7.02%
2. What is the sample standard deviation from the data given 12, 13,
29, 18, 61, 35, 21?
3. If a number is added to a set that is far away from the mean how
does this affect standard deviation?
a. 1% c. 3%
b. 2% d. 4%
6. Alec measured the width and height of a rectangle, but was only
able to measure them to the nearest centimeter. He recorded the width
as 8 cm and the height as 5 cm. Which of the following is true for the
area A cm2 of the rectangle?
a. 40 c. 33.75 A 46.75
b. 39.5 A 40.5 d. 33.75 A 46.75
7. Benny measured the width and height of a rectangle, but was only
able to measure them to the nearest foot. He recorded the width as 12
feet and the height as 5 feet. Which of the following is true for the area A
ft2 of the rectangle?
a. 51.75 A 68.75 c. A = 60
b. 51.75 A 68.75 d. 59.5 A 60.5
12. A student measured the length of a table to be 65 cm, but the table
was actually 62 cm long. What was the percent error in this
measurement?
a. 0.95% b. 1.04% c. 4.8% e. 48%
a. 1% b. 5% c. 8% d.
11%
relation will be
a. 2% b. 4% c. 7% d. 10%
Additional Activities
Answer Key
Assessment What's More What I Know
1. C *the answer varies 1. C
2. B depend on age and 2. B
3. D weight. 3. D
4. C 4. C
5. C 5. C
6. B 6. B
7. D 7. D
8. B 8. B
9. C 9. C
10. B 10. B
11. B 11. B
12. C 12. C
13. A 13. A
14. D 14. D
15. C 15. C