general physics 1 20

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first semester 20
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1.1 Units of
Measurement Fundamental Units
 units adopted for measurement of a
base quantity
Measurement
 process and skill of finding the
Derived Units
dimension of a physical quantity
 all other units made by
mathematically combining the
Units
fundamental units
 standardized values which measure
physical quantities
 fixed quantities with respect to which SI Fundamental Units
a physical quantity is measured Quantity Name Symbol

Physical Quantities
Length Meter m
 all included in the International Mass Kilogram kg
System of Units (SI) are expressed
in terms of combinations of seven Time Second s
fundamental physical units Electric
Current
Ampere A
SI Units: Fundamental and Derived Units Temperature Kelvin K
Amount of
Metric System Substance
Mole mol
 adopted by the SI system of units
Luminous
(acronym for the French Le
Intensity
Candela cd
Système International d’Unitès)
 every other country excluding the
Metric Prefixes
United States uses the metric
 attached at the beginning of units
system
 based on factors of 10
 standard system agreed upon by
scientists and mathematicians  used to characterize its relative
amount in comparison to the
 makes calculations easy because it
standard unit
uses decimal or base-10 system
 the same unit can be used over
English Units extremely large ranges of values
simply by switching to the most-
 also known as the imperial system
appropriate metric prefix
 historically used in nations once
ruled by the British Empire
 currently, the United States is the Prefix Symbol Value Example
only country that still uses English Exa E 18 distance light
units extensively
10
travels in a
century

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(Exameter) size of a
−15
30 million
Femto F 10 proton
15 (Femtometer)
Peta P 10 years
(Petasecond) time light
takes to
powerful −18
12 Atto A 10 cross an
Tera T 10 laser output atom
(Terawatt) (Attosecond)
microwave
Giga G 109 frequency
(Gigahertz) Unit Conversion and Dimensional Analysis
high
6
Mega M 10 radioactivity
Two quantities cannot be calculated together if
(Megacurie)
they do not have a common unit.
distance a
3
Kilo K 10 car travels
Conversion
(Kilometer)
 changing the unit of a quantity
2 26 gallons following the unit of the other
Hector H 10 (Hectoliter) quantity before calculation
teaspoon of  value or magnitude of the physical
1
Deka Da 10 butter quantity does not change, only the
(Dekagram) unit is changed
0
- 10 ∨1
Conversion Factor
less than half  ratio expressing how many of one
−1
Deci D 10 a soda unit are equal to another unit
(Deciliter)
 simply a fraction which equals to 1
fingertip
−2
Centi C 10 thickness
Important Conversion Factors
(Centimeter)
flea at its 1 cm=10 mm
Milli M 10
−3
shoulder 1 km=1000 m
(Millimeter) 1 m=3.28084 ft
detail in 1 m=39.3701∈¿
−6
Micro μ 10 microscope 1 mi=5,280 ft
(Micrometer) Length
1 mi=1.60934 km
−9
small speck 1 n mi=1.852 km
Nano N 10 of dust
1 ft =12∈¿
(Nanogram)
1 ft =30.48 cm
small
capacitor in
1∈¿ 2.54 cm
−12
Pico P 10 radio Mass 1 kg=1000 g
(Picofrad)
1 slug=14,600 g

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1 mton=1000 kg 8.4 × 108
1 USton=907.2 kg
1 lb=16 oz
1 stone=14 lbs
1 min=60 s
1 h=60 min
1 day=24 h
Time 1 year=365 days
1 decade=10 years
1 centur y=100 y rs
1 millennium=1,000 y rs
Volume

Scientific Notation
 a way of writing numbers that are
too large or too small to be
conveniently written as a decimal.
 follows the general format x × 10 y
where x is the value of the
measurement with all the
placeholder zeros removed while y
represents the number of zeros in
the given value.

Examples of Scientific Notation

1. Convert 840,000,000 into scientific

notation.

To convert the given into scientific

notation, we must first take note of its
number of zeros. Since it has eight zeros
that act as placeholders, this will become
the exponent of the scientific notation.
Moving the decimal point eight places to
the left will yield a value of 8.4

Answer: