Lesson 1: Measurement

& Physical Quantities

Systems of Measurement
✘ The English or British ✘ SI system
system comprises units ✘ The metric system
such as: constitutes units based on
✗ pound for force powers of 10, which makes it
✗ yard for length the preferred system to
✗ once for volume used in science.
✘ For example: 1 kilometer
(km) is equal to 103 meters
(m), and 1 milligram (mg) is
equal to 10–3 gram (gm).

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 “In physical science one knows
what he is talking about only when
he can measure & express it in
numbers.” – William Thomson (British
Mathematician & Physicist)

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 TWO METHODS OF MEASUREMENT
1. Direct Method of Measurement
✗ Example: measuring the edge of the table –
compare it with some given standard
✗ A ruler is placed along the edge of the
table, & the number of times the whole
edge is covered by the ruler is
L = 3 x 1 foot
determined.
✗ The length of the table = how many L = 3 feet

times that of the length of the ruler.

(The length of the ruler has been used
as a standard for comparison.)

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2. Indirect Method of Measurement
✗ Example: area of the table
✗ The lengths of two of its adjoining
edges are measured indirectly. W
✗ The area is obtained from the product
of the two lengths.
L
✗ Note: The area is not compared with
any standard area; a computation is A=LxW
made from quantities which have been
measured directly. A = L x W

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 Measurement
– is the process of comparing an unknown
quantity with a known quantity or with a
standard
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 PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
I. According to Origin
A. Fundamental Quantities - simplest types of quantities & cannot be
reduced further
1. Length – any dimension (length, width, height, arc of a circle, altitude,
base, radius, diameter, distance) being measured using linear units
(cm, m, in, ft., km, miles, yard, mm)
2. Mass – amount of molecules or particles in a body
3. Time – lapse of one event to another event; duration

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 PHYSICAL QUANTITIES

B. Derived Quantities – quantities that are taken or

formulated from two or more fundamental quantities
Example: Area = LW; V = LWH; d = m/V; speed = d/t

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 PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
II. According to Specification
A. Scalar quantity – has magnitude and appropriate unit
Example: speed = 60 km/hr.

B. Vector quantity – has magnitude, appropriate unit and direction

Example: velocity = 60 km/hr. to the East

60 km/hr 60 km/hr 60 km/hr 60 km/hr

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 Fundamental Quantities & SI Base Units
QUANTITY UNIT SYMBOL
Length Meter m
Mass Kilogram kg Unit – is a
value or
Time Second s quantity in
terms of which
Temperature Kelvin K other values or
quantities are
Electric Current Ampere A expressed.

Amount of Substance Mole mol

Luminous Intensity Candela cd

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 Fundamental Units of Mass & Force Based System
System Length Units Mass Units Force Units Time Units

Metric
CGS Centimeter (cm) Gram (g) Dyne Second (s)
MKS Meter (m) Kilogram (kg) Newton (N) Second (s)

English
FPS Foot (ft) Slug Pound (lb) Second (s)
 Unit Prefixes
✘ A prefix is a letter or a group of letters added at the beginning of the base
word to change its meaning.
✘ In measurement, a unit prefix or metric prefix can be used to make a new
unit larger or smaller than the base unit.

Power of Ten Prefix Abbreviation Power of Ten Prefix Abbreviation

1012 tera T 10–2 centi c

109 giga G 10–3 milli m
106 mega M 10–6 micro 
103 kilo k 10–9 nano n
 Example

✘ The wavelength of the green emission line in the spectrum of

hydrogen is approximately 486 nanometers (nm). Express this
length in meters.
✘ Solution: n is the abbreviation of nano (10–9)
486nm = 486 x 10–9 m

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 DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

 Dimensional analysis is a practical way of checking

mathematical equations by finding out whether they are
consistent in terms of their dimensions.
 The dimensions of a given quantity can be reduced to a
combination of the fundamental dimensions.
✘ As mentioned earlier there are three basic or fundamental
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quantities. These 3 quantities are:
Quantity SI Unit
Length (L) m (meter)

Mass (M) kg (kilogram)

Time (T) s (second)

✘ Dimension of a physical quantity shows how a derived

quantity is related to the fundamental quantities of length,
mass and time.
✘ [ ] – the brackets denote the dimension of a physical quantity.
[length] = L 17

[mass] = M
[time] = T
Examples:
Relate the following derived quantities to the 3 basic or
fundamental quantities (length, mass, time).
1. [Area] = L x W
=LxL
= L2
2. Velocity – change of displacement
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𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
[𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡]
=
[𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒]
𝐿
= = 𝐿𝑇 −1
𝑇
3. [Volume] = length x width x height
= [length] x [width] x [height]
=LxLxL
= L3
 Many problems in physics require the conversion of one
unit of measurement to another.
✘ Unit Equality or conversion factor is an equation that
shows the equivalent amounts of different units.

Unit Equivalent Unit Unit Equivalent Unit Unit Equivalent Unit

1 inch 2.54 cm 1 atm 101325 Pa 1 slug 14.59 kg

1 gal 3.788 L 1 foot 12 inches 1N 0.2248 lb

1 calorie 4.186 J 1 mile 5280 ft 1 eV 1.602 x 10-19 J

 Examples
1. Problem: How many inches are there in 12 m?
✘ Solution: From the given table there is no direct conversion from inches to meters. Relate
inches to centimeters by first converting the metric quantities.
1 in = 2.54 cm; 100 cm = 1 m
✘ Using d as the variable to represent the length of 12 m and the appropriate conversion factors,
the solution for the problem is as follows.
100 𝑐𝑚 1 𝑖𝑛
𝑑 = 12𝑚
1𝑚 2.54𝑐𝑚
𝒅 = 𝟒𝟕𝟐 𝒊𝒏
✘ There are 472 in for every 12 m.
2. MPIWI uses cubic meter (m3) as the unit of a volume of water used in each
household. Determine how many cubic21meters are there in20-L tank of water.
✘ Solution: Let the volume of the tank be represented by V. The unit equalities that
can be used are the following:
 1L = 1,000 mL; 1 mL = 1 cm3; 100 cm = 1m
 Setting the equation:
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1,000 𝑚𝐿 1𝑐𝑚3 1𝑚
𝑉 = 20 𝐿
1𝐿 1 𝑚𝐿 100 𝑐𝑚

𝑽 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟐 𝒎𝟑
There are 0.02 m3 in a 20 L tank of water.
Note: 100 cm3 is not equal to 1 m3.
3. The speed of a car as measured by a speedometer is 90 kilometers per
hour (km/hr). Convert this unit to22centimeter per second (cm/s)
✘ Solution: For this case, the unit is expressed in a ratio, convert units used
in both the numerator and the denominator. Let v represent the speed of
the car. The following unit equalities are:
 1 km = 1,000 m; 1 m = 100 cm; 1 hr = 3,600 s
 The equation is:

𝑘𝑚 1,000 𝑚 100 𝑐𝑚 1 ℎ𝑟
𝑣 = 90
ℎ𝑟 1 𝑘𝑚 1𝑚 3,600 𝑠

𝒗 = 𝟐, 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝒄𝒎 𝒔
 SOME CONVERSION FACTORS FOR LENGTH AND MASS
UNIT EQUIVALENT UNIT
1 centimeter = 0.3937 inches (in)
1 inch = 2.54 centimeters
1 meter = 39.37 inches
1 meter = 3.28 feet (ft)
1 mile = 5280 feet
1 mile = 1.609 kilometers
1 kilogram = 2.205 pounds (lb)
1 pound = 453.6 grams
1 ton (metric) = 2205 pounds
1 ton (British) = 2000 pounds
1 pound = 16 ounces (0z)
 SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
 A “short cut” to writing extremely large or small numbers by expressing
them as a number between 1 & 10 multiplied by a power of 10.
 Example:
✗ Velocity of light = 30,000,000,000 cm/s

✗ Mass of electron = 0.000000000000000000000000000000911 kg

✗ Avogadro’s number = 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
molecules/mole
 POWERS OF TEN
NUMBER POWER OF 10
0.000000000001 10-12
0.000000001 10-9
0.000001 10-6
0.001 10-3
0.01 10-2
0.1 10-1
10.0 101
100.0 102
1 000.0 103
1 000 000.0 106
1 000 000 000.0 109
1 000 000 000 000.0 1012
 ANSWER
✘ Velocity of light = 30,000,000,000 cm/s
= 3 x 1010 cm/s
✘ Mass of electron =
0.000000000000000000000000000000911 kg
= 9.11 x 10–31 kg
✘ Avogadro’s number = 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
molecules/mole
= 6.02 x 1023 molecules/mole