Estimation questions

1. Uncommon in structured, tend to be MCQs. Uncommon to have estimation qns in general, so do not be
too stressed about it, your ability to ans such qn may dept on your daily exposure and sensitivity to values
of quantities around you e.g. knowing 500 kg for human mass is ridiculous. Just try your best to estimate
2. Always need to be reasoned ➔ explain briefly how you arrives at the value by giving estimate for each
quantity involved
3. A range of answers are accepted → as long as within same order of magnitude e.g. 5 g and 1 g, 1500 N
and 2500 N are considered as same order
4. Use
• daily experiences eg max speed on expressway, size of basketball
• reference to common values eg length of ruler, human mass and height, mass of 1 L of water
• typical common values in science eg density of water = 1g/cm3

Measurement Tut Q4
Quantity to be found Physical quantities involved
(Write down the related
equation)
(a) Mass of water in Density  = mass m/volume V
Olympic-size (Use symbols!!!)
swimming pool
• Density of water
• Volume of water
Reasoned estimate using daily experience,
reference to common values or typical common
values in science
(MUST - State the values of the quantities
involved clearly, NOT just numbers with no
explanation of the physical quantities involved)
Daily experience
• One length of pool is 50 m
• 8 competitors standing in a lane across, say
about 3 m for each person ➔ 3 x 8 = 24 m

Common values
Human height about 1.7 m, the water is about
your head, can estimate to 2 m

Typical common values in science Density of

water is about 1000 kg/m3

Reasoned estimate
Length L = 50 m, Width w = 24 m, Depth d = 2 m
Volume, V = Lwd = 50 x 24 x 2 = 2400 m3

(b) Volume of a V = 4/3 r3 Daily experience and common values

basketball With reference to 15cm/30 cm rule, basketball
• Radius diameter is about 25 cm (more than 15 cm, less
than 30 cm)

(c) Acceleration of MRT a = v/t Daily experience and common values

train (H1 Phy qn) Imagine car driving at max speed of 70 km/h
• Initial velocity, final velocity beside the MRT train, the MRT is slightly faster
• Time than the car

When you are in the train, it goes from

stationary to max speed in about 10 s(o if you
estimate 7s, 15 s, try it out for yourself in MRT
today!)
Challenging qn (Unclear P = E/t = ½ m v2/t https://www.bmw.com/en/performance/all-
context and hard to (Must be talking about car about-acceleration.html
estimate) accelerating from rest to a max
speed to discuss the amount of Performance in horsepower, maximum rpm, top
(d) Power of a car KE gain in certain amount of speed... But what key automotive metric is
travelling along an time) missing from this list? You’ve got it: acceleration,
expressway (H1 Phy or the “0-60” rating.
qn) • Initial velocity, final velocity
• Time Back in the 1950s, a small car took over 30
seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph – or
from 0-100 km/h (0 to 62.1 mph), the standard
P = Fv (New eqn, not learnt yet!!! performance measure in most of Europe. And
In topic of Dynamics. This is the even sports cars had to fight to get below the
driving force to maintain a ten-second mark. Then things started moving
cruising speed) faster in car acceleration. When BMW launched
their first BMW M3 sports car with its 200 hp
engine some 30 years ago, it could go from 0-60
mph in a respectable 6.7 seconds. The 431 hp
BMW M4 Coupé model released in 2014 easily
beat this time by well over two seconds.