IBB University Physics course for

College of Medicine medical laboratory students

Department of medical level 1, 01 – 10 – 2018
laboratory
Lecture1: *‫"وأوفوا الكيل وال تكونوا من المخسرين* وزنوا بالقسطاس المستقيم‬
"‫وال تبخسوا الناس أشياءهم وال تعثوا في األرض مفسدين‬
Physics and measurements
Dr. Mohammed Sultan
Lecture outline
1. What is Physics?
2. Scientific Notation (Power of ten)
3. The physical quantities and measurements
4. SI units
5. Uncertainty in Measurements
6. Significant Digits (figures)
7. Decimal Rounding
8. Order of Magnitude estimates
9. Problems
• What is physics?
- Physics The study of the behavior and the structure of matter and
energy + the interaction between matter and energy.
- Physics is a creative activity that describes the world around us
both qualitatively and quantitatively by observation and
explanation.
• Requires IMAGINATION!!
- Physics can be classified into two parts: classical and modern
- (i) Classical physics  Before 1900
- The foundation of pure & applied macroscopic physics &
engineering!
- Newton’s Laws + Thermodynamics  Describe most of
macroscopic world!
- (ii) Modern Physics  after 1900
- high speeds (v ~ c) needs Special Relativity
- small sizes (atomic & smaller) needs Quantum Mechanics
Physics & Other Sciences
• Physics: the parent (most basic) of all sciences!
• It is connected to all branches of science and engineering.
– Chemistry, Life Sciences & Medicine
– Architecture and Engineering
– Various technological fields
– It is useful in everyday life

• Physics and Technology

- Planetary explorations (‫)استكشاف الكواكب‬
- Transportation means (‫( )وسائل النقل‬cars, trains, airplanes, ships)
- Construction (‫)البناء‬
- Telecommunications (‫)االتصاالت‬
- High-speed computers (‫)الحواسيب عالية السرعة‬
- Medicine (Genetic Engineering, Imaging techniques, Lasers & X-Rays …)
Physics in Medicine (Some cases)
• Weighing ------ Balance, Measuring length ---- Scale
• Measuring temperature ----Thermometer
• Measuring heart beats ----Stethoscope
• Body pressure (blood, eye, ear, spinal, skull, bladder, lungs)
• Blood motion, Viscous Fluid Flow, diffusion and osmosis,
• Sound and Ultrasonic waves,
• Medical thermography, Regulation of Body Temperature ,
• Spectroscopy, Imaging techniques , Lasers & X-Rays
• Visualizing Cell Architecture (Microscopes )
• Electricity & magnetism (Electrocardiography)
• Optics & Optical fibers, Contact lenses
• Radioactivity & Dosimetry
• Nanoparticles in medicine & Magnetic biomaterials
• Applications of infrared thermography in animal production?
 Physical quantities and measurements
• Physics is known to be the science of measurements that can be
used to describe natural phenomenon.
• Each measurement is associated with a physical quantity.
• There are many physical quantities such as length, mass, density,
Temperature, viscosity, area, volume, velocity, force, energy, and
so on.
• The physical quantities can be divided into two kinds: the
fundamentals quantities and the derived quantities:
• Fundamental quantities:
• length, (l), mass, (m) , time (t), temperature (T), electric current
(I), luminous intensity (Iv) and quantity of substance (n).
• Derived quantities
• All quantities other than fundamentals are called derived
quantities.
• Derived quantities can be described in terms of some combination
(multiplication, division) of the fundamental quantities.
 Measurements of the physical quantities
• For the measurement of a physical quantity (X), three things are
required:
(i) The unit (u) in which the physical quantity is expressed and
(ii) The number (or numerical value (n)) of times the given unit is
contained in the physical quantity.
(iii) The uncertainty in measurements
- For 100 meters, the meter is a unit by which distance is measured,
and the 100 is the number of units contained in the measured
distance.
• Physical quantity = number  unit or 𝑋 = 𝑛𝑢
constant 1
𝑛𝑢 = constant, 𝑛= →𝑛∝
𝑢 𝑢
• This shown that smaller the unit of physical quantity, larger will
be the numerical value of the physical quantity and vice – versa
 (i) Standards Units of measurements
• There are two types of units according to quantities:
• Basic units: those units which are well defined in terms of some
standards that people agree to use to compare one event or
object to another.
• Derived units for other physical quantities which are products or
quotients of the basic units.
Systems of Measurement - Standardized systems
According to the characteristics of standard units, there are three common systems
used in the scientific fields over the years:
1. Gaussian system (cgs)
-This is a metric system, in which the centimeter (cm), gram (g), and second (s) are
the standard units of length, mass, and time respectively.
2. US (or British) system (fps)
-This is the US customary that is used in the everyday life of USA people.
-In this system, the standards are the foot (f) for length, the pound (p) for weight,
and the second (s) for time.
 3. SI – system of units
- The abbreviation SI means the Systeme International (French).
- It is a metric system that is also called mks for the first letters in the
(meter, kilogram, second) units.

Base quantity SI base unit

Name Symbols Name Symbols
Length l, x, r, etc. Meter m;
Mass m Kilogram kg;
time, duration t Second s
electric current I, i Ampere A
absolute temperature T Kelvin K
amount of substance n Mole mol
luminous intensity Iv Candela cd
Derived Units
• It is difficult to make all measurements with only the 7 basic units
(meter, kilogram, second, ….).
• Derived units  Defined in terms of combinations of basic units
• Single Fundamental Unit
- Area = Length  Length = length2 (m2, ft2, etc )
- Volume = Length  Length  Length = length3 (m3, cm3)
- Combination of Units
- Velocity = Length / Time (m/s, miles/hour, etc.)
- Acceleration = Length / (Time  Time) (m/s2)
- Force = Mass  Length / (Time  Time) (kg m/s2)
- Density ρ= Mass/Volume (kg/m3), ρwater = 1g/cm3
ρ seawater = 1.025 g/cm3 , ρUrine = 1.015 to 1.030 g/cm3
• When a combination of units becomes complex and frequently
used –It is given a name, examples:
– kg  m/s2  newton (N)
Units and Equations
• In dealing with equations, the units must be the same on both sides of an
equation
• Z = X+ Y (The units of Z, Y and X must be the same)
• Example: You go 90 km/hr for 40 minutes. How far did you go?
– Equation from: x = vt, v = 90 km/hr, t = 40 min. To use this equation,
first convert t to hours.
– Converting Units
units in the numerator & denominator can cancel out (algebra)
• Example (1): Convert 80 km/hr to m/s
Conversion factor: 1 km = 1000 m; 1hr = 3600 s
80 km/hr = (80 km/hr) (1000 m/km) (1hr/3600 s)
(Cancel units!)
80 km/hr  22 m/s (22.222…m/s)
Example (2) covert 5.3 kg / m3 to g/mm3
Density: ρ = m/V  Density unit = kg/m3
ρ = 5.3 kg/m3 = 5.3 × 10-6 g/mm3
(ii) Powers of 10 (Scientific Notation)
• Very small and very large numbers are generally written as a factor
(M) times a power of 10, or in general form:
𝑀 × 10𝑛
• Where: M is a number between 1 and 10 (1≤ M  10) and n is the
exponent or power of 10 that indicates the number of places that
the decimal in the coefficient (M) needs to be moved.
- The number 11 in 1011 is called the exponent; 103 represents 1000
- For numbers smaller than 1, the exponent is negative.
- For example, 0.1 = 10−1, and 0.0001 = 10−4
• Example (1)
(a) The radius of Earth,  6 380 000 m at the equator = 6.38 × 106 m
(b) The radius of hydrogen atom 0.000 000 000 053 m = 5.3 × 10−11 m

PP(1): write the following numbers in the scientific notation

(a) 7 000 000 (b) 7 000 000 000 (c) 7 240 000 (d) 0.003 45
 Rules for Scientific Notation
• To rewrite a number in scientific notation:
- The exponent is increased by one for every place the decimal point is
shifted to the left. e.g. (1) 360 000 = 3.6  105 , 39 600 = 3.96  104
- The exponent is decreased by one for every place the decimal point is
shifted to the right. e.g. (2) 0.0694 = 6.94  10-2 , 0.0021 = 2.1  10-3
- Notes on Exponent rules
- (i) Multiplication (sum the exponents)
(a) 100  100 = 10 000 can be written as 102  102 = 102+2 = 104.
(b) (5.5  10- 7)  (2.4  10) = (5.5  2.4)  10-7+4 = 13  10- 3 = 1.3  101 
10- 3 = 1.3  10- 2.
(ii) Division : change the sign of an exponent and use the multiplication
rules
7.5 × 10−3 7.5 −3 × 10+4 = 3.0 × 10 = 30
= × 10
2.5 × 10−4 2.5
Meter prefixes (‫)البادئة المترية‬
of units
- Larger & Smaller Units are Defined
from SI standards by Powers of 10 &
Greek Prefixes
- These are the standard SI prefixes for
indicating powers of 10.
- Many (k, c, m, μ) are familiar;
- Others (Y, Z, E, h, da, a, z, y) are rarely
used.
- we can express a particular
magnitude of force as:
1.23 × 106 N = 1.23 mega newton
= 1.23 MN
- or a particular time interval as:
1.23 × 10−9 s = 1.23 nano second
= 1.23 ns
Typical Lengths (approx.)




Typical Times (approx.)




Typical Masses (approx.)





 (iii) Measurement & Uncertainty
• Physics is an EXPERIMENTAL science!
• Experiments are NEVER 100% accurate. It always have uncertainty
in final result which is called the Experimental error.
• The most basic way to indicate the precision of a quantity is to
write it with the correct number of significant figures (s.f.).
• The significant figures are all the digits that are known accurately
plus the one estimated digit.
• E.g. what is the pressure reading in the pressure gauge in Figure
below?
. With no doubt the Needle is clearly between
3 and 4,
. The next decimal place looks to be about 0.8,
. some people might estimate it to be 0.7 or 0.9
. So the pressure is 3.8 psi
The no of s.f. is 2
Rules for Identifying Significant Figures (s.f)
- A significant figure is one that is reliably known.
- All non-zero figures are significant (24.5)
- All final zeros after the decimal point are significant (0.12300)
- Zeros between two other significant figures are always significant
(2.307)
- Zeros used as placeholders are not significant. (the man height is
1.7 m or 0.0017 km or 1700 mm )
PP 1: State the number of s f. in each
of these measurements and rewrite
them in standard scientific notation.
(a) 24.35 m (4), (b) 15.10 g (4),
(c) 0.0014 s ( ), (d) 4.6  103 kg (2),
(e) 1.008 (4) (f) 2.0  103 m ( ),
(g) 0.00430 ℓ ( ) (h) 409.8 s ( )
(i) 0.058700 cm (5) (j) 9500 g (2)
(k) 950.0 × 101 mL ( )
 Arithmetic with Significant figures
• When adding or subtracting, keep the smaller number of decimal
places (4.023 + 102.3 = 106.3)
• When multiplying or dividing, keep the smaller number of
significant figures. (4.023 × 102.3 = 411.6)
• Apply these rules according to the algebraic order of calculations
(consider symbols of enclosure first, then multiplication/division
operations and lastly addition/subtraction operations).
4.023 − 3.954 0.069
= = 0.012
5.564 5.564
Further examples:
• 44.56005 s + 0.0698 s + 1103.2 s = 1147.8298 using calculator
• Rounding the results to the least precise quantity (i.e. 1103.2 s)
yields to 1147.8 (with 5sf) = 1.1478 103 in scientific notation
• 3.6 – 0.57 = 3.0 not 3.03
• 24.35 m + 2.6 m + 12. 461 m = 39.411 m = 39.4 m
 Further examples
• 4.22 cm  3.1 cm = 13.082 cm2 = 13 cm2
• 2.0 ÷ 3.0 = 0.67 not 0.6 666 666 666, 2.5  3.2 = 8.0 not 8
Multiplication & Division using Rounding change to scientific
calculator notation
5.6256  0.0 012 = 0.0 067 5072 round to 2 sf = 0.0 068 0.0 068 = 6.8  10-3
2.5  3.2 = 8 Round to 2 sf = 8.0 8.0 = 8.0  100
2.0 / 3.0 = 0.6 666 666 666 Round to 2 sf = 0.67 0.67 = 6.7101
0.0 024/8.05 = 0.0 002 981 Round to 2 sf = 0.00 030 0.00 030 = 3.0  10-4
45.26 m/s  2.41 s = 109.0766 m Round to 3 sf = 109 m 109 = 1.09 102

• PP : write the solution with correct no of s.f.

• 568.42 m − 3.924 m
• 5.4 + 2.35 = (Ans. 7.8 not 7.75)
• 28.84 m ÷ 6.2 s =
• 2.67  103 m/s =
• 11.3 cm  6.8 =
Accuracy and precision
• When reporting a measurement, a reasonable question is “how good is
the measurement?” There are two ways : accuracy and precision.
• Accuracy is the agreement between experimental data and the “true”
value, while precision is the agreement between replicate measurements.

• Accuracy is assessed by calculating the percent error, which is given by the

formula:
measured value − true value
%error = × 100%
true value
• The precision of a measurement is improved by careful lab technique and/or using
instruments capable of yielding greater precision.
• The precision of a measurement can also be improved by making replicate
measurements and taking the average.
• The equations for calculating averages and standard deviations are given:
measurements
average =
number of measurements
measurements − average of measurements 2
standard deviation =
number of measurements − 1
• The smaller the ratio of the standard deviation to the average value, the better
the precision.
• Example () imagine measuring the PO2 of a patient three times and you get the
values: 105, 96.0, and 102 mmHg. What is the average value? Does the data seem
precise? What is the standard deviation of the measurements? What is the
percent error if the true value of PO2 is 100 mmHg?
• Solution
• The average value is 101 mmHg and the standard deviation is 4.6 mmHg.
• the standard deviation /the average value = 4.6/101 = 0.045 or 4.5%) these data
are fairly precise.
• the percent error is 1%.
 Order of Magnitude estimates (‫)تقريب رتبة المقدار‬
• The order of magnitude of a number is the power of ten when the
number is expressed in scientific notation.
• E.g., if A = 2.3  104  the o. m. is 4 & B = 7.8  104  the o. m. is 4
• If a quantity increases in value by three orders of magnitude then its
value increases by a factor of about 103 = 1 000.
• Order of magnitude estimates:
(i) Express the number in scientific notation
(ii) If the multiplier < 3.162 (or 10), the order of magnitude of the
number is the power of 10. (The nearest order of magnitude for
A is 4 ).
(iii) If the multiplier > 3.162, the order of magnitude is one larger
than the power of 10 (The nearest order of magnitude for B is 5)
• Such estimation is common when detailed or precise data required in
the calculation are not known or easily found.
 Examples on Order of Magnitude estimates
(a) 27 = 2.7101 10
(b) 75 kg = 7.5101  102
(c) 720 = 7.20  102  103
(d) 1006950 = 1.006950  106  106
(e) 0.008 6 = 8.6  10-3  10-2
(f) 0.002 1  2.1  10-3  10-3
Example: Estimate the number of breaths taken during an average life span
(‫)جد تقريبا لعدد عمليات التنفس التي تحدث إلنسان خالل متوسط فترة عمره‬
Solution
-Start by guessing that the typical life span is about 70 years.
-Choose 10 breaths per minute as our estimate of the average
400 days 25 h 60 min
1yr = 6 × 105 min
1 yr 1 day 1h
-Thus, in 70 years there will be (70 yr)(6  105 min/yr) = 4  107 min.
-At a rate of 10 breaths/min, an individual would take 4  108 breaths
in a lifetime, or on the order of 109 breaths.
Questions & Problems
(Q1) (1) Which of the following is not one of the fundamental physical
quantities in the SI system? (a) Mass (b) Length (c) Force (d) Time
(2) In doing a calculation, you end up with m/s in the numerator (‫ )البسط‬and
m/s2 in the denominator (‫)المقام‬. What are your final units?
(a) m2/ s3. (b) 1/s. (c) s3/m2. (d) s. (e) m/s.
(3) The prefix giga means: (a) 103, (b) 106, (c) 109, (d) 1012, (e) 1015.
(4) The number 0.0005130 has ----- significant figures.
(a) one, (b) three, (c) four, (d) seven, (e) eight.
(5) The number 23.0040 has ----- significant figures.
(a) two, (b) three, (c) four, (d) five, (e) six.
(Q2) In the following equations, the distance x is in meters, the time t is in
seconds, and the velocity v is in meter per second. What are the SI units of
1
the constants C1 and C2? (a) x = C1 + C2t; (b) x = Clt2;
2

(Q3) Complete the following: (a) 1.296105 km/h2 =---- km/(h·s),

(b) 1 .296105 km/h2 = ---- m/s2
Questions & Problems
(Q4) Express as a decimal number without using powers of 10
notation: (a) 3  104 = (b) 6.2 x 10-3 =
(Q5) Calculate the following, round off to the correct number of
significant figures, and express your result in scientific notation:
(a) (1.14)(9.99  104) =
(b) (200.9)(569.3) =
(c) (2.00 × 104 )(6.10 × 10−2 ) =
(d) 3.141592654  (23.2)2 =
(e) 2.0  3.141592654  0.76 =
2.32×103
(f) =
1.16×108
(g) (5.14 × 103) + (2.78 × 102) =
(h) 28 401 + (5.78  104) =
(i) (2.78  10-8) - (5.31  10-9) =
Answers
(Q1)
(1) (c) (2) (d) (3) (c) (4) (c) (5) (e)

(Q2)
(a) C1 (meter), C2 (m/s) (b) c1 (m/s2)

(Q3)
(a) 1.296105 km/h2 = 36.0 km/(h·s),
(b) 1 .296105 km/h2 = 10.0 m/s2

(Q4)
(a) 30 000 (b) 0.006 2

(Q5)
(a) (1.14  105) (b) (1.144  105) (c) (1.22 × 103)
(d) (1.69  103) (e) (4.8) (f) (2.00 × 10−5 )
(g) (5.42 × 103) (h) (8.62  104) (i) (2.25  10-8)