PHYSICS

Physical Quantities and Measurement

Techniques

Dr. Josephine D’ Silva

 Physical Quantities
is a quantity that can be measured, consisting of a numerical
magnitude(number) and a unit.
The number denotes the size of the physical quantity.
The unit denotes the physical quantity it is expressing.
Examples
Length, the distance between two points
25 km from Clifton to Gulistan e johar
Time, a measurement of period
45 minutes for one class
Mass , the amount of matter
in an object
3 kg of a bag of rice
It is characterized into 2 types;
1. Base (basic) quantities ;are those that cannot be derived from any other
physical quantity. There are seven basic quantities.
The unit for base quantity is called base units.
2. Derived quantities ; are those that are derived from the base quantities.
The unit for derived quantity is called derived unit.
Unit; is defined as a standard size of measurement for physical quantities
The common system used today is the SI units(International System of Units).
Prefixes for SI Units
Examples
1 cm = 0.01 metre
1 kg = 1000 grams
1 GB = 1 000 000 000 bytes
0.000 0052 s = 5.2μs = 5.2×10−6 s
3MJ=3x106 J =3000000J
Question
1. Convert the following into 2. Convert the following into
meters seconds
i) 150 km i) 700 ms
ii) 75000 nm ii) 3x105 Gs
iii) 0.0025km iii) 0.086 Ms
iv) 0.45 Mm Iv) 1.45 cs
Question
3.Arrange the units given below in their respective column,
beginning with the smallest unit.
km, µg, nm, kg, µs, ms, s, mg, ns, g, dm, Mg, mm

Length Mass Time

 4. Perform the following conversions:
a)5.0 cm = _________________ m
b)16ns = _________________ s
c)75GB= _________________ B
d)10km = _________________ m
e)1200000 J = _________________ MJ
f)0.0000054 Pa= _________________ µP
Scalar and Vector Quantities
Scalar Quantity Vector Quantity
Is a quantity that has magnitude and Is a quantity that has both magnitude and
no direction direction.
Examples Examples
Distance ,Speed, Mass, Energy, Displacement, Velocity, Weight

Time , Temperature Force, Pressure, acceleration

 Measurement of length
 it is the distance between two points.
 Its SI unit is meters
 It is a scalar quantity
 short distances are measured in cm and mm.
 Very short distances like the length of bacteria are measured
in micrometer.
 Very large distances are measured in km
Instruments used to measure length

Vernier caliper

Measuring tape

Meter Ruler
 Meter Ruler and Measuring Tape
 Meter Ruler measures length up to 1 meter or 100 cm whereas Measuring
tape measures length longer then I m .This is called the range of the
instrument.
 Range it is the lowest to highest reading the instrument can measure.
Range=highest value-lowest value
 The smallest unit a meter ruler or measuring tape can measure is 1 mm or
0.1cm. This is also called the precision of the instrument or it tells you how
close the measured values are to each other
 Accuracy refers to the degree of closeness to the true value.it is measured as
the maximum error encountered when a particular observation is made.
 They have an accuracy of ± 0.1 cm
What is the length of the feather?

29 -10=19mm or 1.9cm
Measurement of length
Calipers are meant for measuring thicknesses
and internal or external diameters inaccessible to a scale.
E.g cylinders and circular objects.

Vernier Calipers
Range; up to 15cm
Precision 0.01cm
Accuracy; ± 0.01 cm
Example; diameter of a
Test tube
The outside jaws, are used to
measure the outer dimensions
of an object and the inner
jaws for the inner ones. The
stem is used to measure the
depth.
 Micrometer Screw Gauge

 Range; less than

2.5cm
 Precision 0.01mm
 Accuracy; ± 0.01 mm
 Example ; diameter of
a wire
 The micrometer is
used to measure
external diameter only
of objects of thickness
upto 2.5 cm.

https://youtu.be/QH5UoTDwqVM
Digital micrometer
Errors in measuring length
Zero error is when the measurement is taken at a point
besides zero
If zero line on circular scale does not coincide with zero on
the linear scale when the screwgauge is closed, the error due
to this is called zero error of the screw gauge.

Actual reading =
observed reading –zero error reading

• Whatever reading we take on this

micrometer we would have to
subtract the zero correction from
the final readings.
Errors in measuring length
Parallax errors is an error in measurement due to the eye not being at the correct position i.e.
when the eye is not placed perpendicular or 90 degrees when taking a reading.

Parallax errors affects the accuracy of the measurement.

If you consistently used the incorrect angle to view the
markings, your measurements will be displaced from the true
values by the same amount. This is called systematic error
if you used different angles to view the markings, your
measurements will be displaced from the true values by
different amounts. This is called random error.
 Measurement of time
 Time is a measurement of the length of an event
 We can tell time by measuring events that repeat
itself at regular intervals or periods.
 S I Unit for time is seconds(s).
 It is a scalar quantity.
Instruments used to measure time
Stopwatches
are used to measure short time intervals
Analogue stopwatch Digital stopwatch
Precision= 0.1s Precision=0.01s
Digital stopwatch
 Using a pendulum to measure time

the to and fro motion of an object is called

an oscillation.it is the motion from one
extreme position to another i.e C to B and
back to C
The time taken for one oscillation is called
the time period(T).
The unit used is seconds

https://youtu.be/IKAzjiMv5_4
https://youtu.be/02w9lSii_Hs?si=5p_qB34GU8gIgyCY
From a pendulum,the time period is calculated as;
T= time taken for 10 oscillation
number of oscillations
The number of oscillations in one second is called the
frequency(f). The unit used is hertz(Hz)
F= total number of oscillation
total time taken
The relationship between them is ;
f=1/T
Human reaction time: A measure of how much time
passes between seeing something and reacting to it(
approximately 0.2s,usually increases with age and
sickness)
 Time period of pendulum depends only
on the length of the string
WHY DO SHORTER PENDULUM SWING
FASTER?
The length of the string affects the
pendulum’s period such that the longer the
length of the string, the longer the
pendulum’s period. Similarly, the shorter
the length of the string the shorter the
pendulum’s period.
Change in amplitude will also not affect the
period of the pendulum for small changes.
EFFECT OF MASS ON THE PENDULUM:
DOES A HEAVIER PENDULUM SWING FASTER?
A heavier pendulum will not swing faster. The mass of
the pendulum will not have any effect on the period
of the swing.
WHAT MAKES A PENDULUM SLOW DOWN?
When the swing is raised and released, it will move
freely back and forth due to the force of gravity on it.
The swing continues moving back and forth without
any extra outside help until friction (between the air
and the swing) slows it down and eventually stops it.
 Questions
1.If the length of the string is increased, the period of a simple
pendulum will
a)increase
b) decrease
c) stay the same.
2. On which of the following factors does the time of a simple
pendulum depends?
(i)the mass of the pendulum bob.
ii) the number of oscillations.
iii) the length of the pendulum.
A (i) only. B (ii) only. C (iii) only. D (ii) and (iii) only.
 Question
3.A pendulum swings backwards and forward passing through Y, the
middle point of the oscillation. The first time the pendulum passes
through Y, a stopwatch is started. The twenty-first time the
pendulum passes through Y, the stopwatch is stopped. The reading is
T.
What is the period of the pendulum?
A T/40 B T/21 C T/20 D T/10
4.
5.
 Home assignment
Q. Complete the following table.

INSTRUMENT RANGE PRECISION ACCURACY EXAMPLE

TO MEASURE (What the instrument can
LENGTH measure)
1 Measuring
tape
2 Meter ruler
3 Vernier calipers
4 Micrometer
Screw gauge