REVISION

CH1: INTRODUCTION TO
PHYSICS AND
MEASUREMENTS
 A scalar quantity is completely specified by a single value with an appropriate unit and has no
direction. Such as volume, mass, speed, and time .

 A vector quantity is completely specified by a number and appropriate units plus a

direction. Such as displacement, velocity, acceleration, and force.
 Quantities Used in physics

- Basic (fundamental) quantities

- Derived quantities

In physics, three basic (fundamental )quantities are used:

 Length
 Mass
 Time
Allother quantities in physics can be expressed in terms of the three
fundamental quantities such as velocity and force.
 Examples of physical quantities

Length

Length is the distance between two points in space.

Units in SI system is meter or m
Examples of physical quantities

Mass

Units in SI system is kilogram or kg

Defined in terms of a kilogram, based on a
specific cylinder kept at the International Bureau
of Standards
 Examples of physical quantities

Time

Units is seconds or s
Examples of physical quantities

Volume: Amount of space occupied by a body.

•SI Unit: cubic meter (m3)

Density: Amount of mass per unit volume of a substance.

SI Units: kg/m3
 Conversion of Units

When units are not consistent, you may need to convert to appropriate
ones.
See Appendix A for an extensive list of conversion factors.
Units can be treated like algebraic quantities that can cancel each other
out.
Example: If a car speed is 130 km/h. Express this speed in meters per second.

SOLVE: We use the conversion factors with the problem solving strategy:
Example:
The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in
Venezuela, with a total drop of 979.0 m (see Figure).
Express this drop in feet.

Solution:
Since 3.281 feet = 1 meter, it follows that (3.281 feet)/(1
meter) By using this factor of conversion
 Is He Speeding?
On an interstate highway in a rural region of Wyoming, a car is traveling at a speed of 38.0 m/s. Is the
driver exceeding the speed limit of 75 mi/h or 120 km/h?

SOLUTION
Convert meters in the speed to miles:

Convert seconds to hours:

Convert miles to kilometers:

The driver is indeed exceeding the speed limit and should slow
down.
Using Scientific Notation (Powers of 10): Common to express very
large or very small numbers using powers of 10 notation.

Examples:
39,600 = 3.96  104
(moved decimal 4 places to left)
0.0021 = 2.1  10-3
(moved decimal 3 places to right)
 Using Scientific Notation

Example: For each of the following, express the magnitude using

a scientific notation.
A x 10n, where 1 ≤ A < 10 and n is an integer
A- 20000000
B- 345000
Solution:
C- 0.0000023
A- 2 x 107
D- 0.00000006
B- 3.45 x 105
E- 123402123100
C- 2.3 x 10-6
D- 6 x 10-8
E- 1.2 x 1011
 Mathematical Manipulation:

The multiplication

The division
The addition and subtraction

You should conjugate the power (the order) of the numbers during you make
adding or subtracting
 Significant figure properties

 All numbers that are not zeros are significant.

For example 1.57 has 3Sig.
- 37 -- 2 sig - 703 -- 3 sig

- 5006 - 4 sig 7030  3 sig 7030.  4sig

Not counting
Counting because of the decimal point

- 4,0000 has 1Sig.

- 700000 has 1Sig.

 Zeros in the middle of non-zero numbers are

significant
 - For example 5.004 has 4Sig. While 5,400 has 2Sig.
 Zeros after decimal are significant
 - For example 27.200 has 5Sig.
 Significant figure

Check point

How many significant figures in the following?

1.0070 m  5 sig figs
17.10 kg 4 sig figs
100,890 L 5 sig figs
3.29 x 103 s 3 sig figs
0.0054 cm 2 sig figs
3,200,000 mL 2 sig figs
 Operations with Significant Figures –
Multiplying or Dividing

When multiplying or dividing several quantities, the number of significant

figures in the final answer is having the smallest number of significant
figures.

Example: 25.57 m x 2.45 m = 62.6 m2

 The 2.45 m limits your result to 3 significant figures.

Chapter 2
MOTION IN ONE DIMENSION
2.1 Kinematics  Types of Motion:

Translational-Motion in which an entire object moves is

called translation.

•An example is a car traveling on a highway.​

•Circular-Motion is an example on translation in two dimension.

Rotational-Motion in which an object spins is called rotation.​

•An example is the Earth’s spin on its axis.​

Vibrational (or Periodic)-Motion in which a motion repeated itself

in same periods of time.​
•An example is the back-and-forth movement of a pendulum.
2.3 Displacement, Velocity, and Speed
Displacement
Example: A person walks 70 m East and then turning around and
walking back (West) a distance 30 m as shown in Figure.
Determine the total distance and the displacement of the
person.
Distance here will be=
  Average Velocity & Average Speed:

Definition:
 The Speed is the rate at which the total distance occurs.
 The velocity is rate at which the displacement occurs.

 Velocity is a vector quantity.  Speed is a scalar quantity.

 The x indicates motion along the x-axis.  Has the same units as velocity
 The dimensions are length / time [L/T]  The speed has no direction and is
 The SI units are m/s always expressed as a positive
number.
2.3 Displacement, Velocity, and Speed
 Average Velocity & Average Speed:

SOLUTION: The displacement is

The average velocity is

The negative sign mean the direction is to –ve x-axis.

2.3 Displacement, Velocity, and Speed
 Instantaneous Velocity
Example:
The position of a particle moving on the x-axis is given by x(t) = 20 + 4 t2 – 3t3.

1) The position of the particle after 2 sec. from starts the motion.
2) Find the position of the particle at t = 0 s and t = 5 s.
3) Find the displacement of the particle in the time interval t = 0 s to t = 5 s.
4) Find the average velocity in the interval between 0 sec. and 5 sec.
5) What is its instantaneous velocity at t = 2 seconds?
SOLUTION:

Remarks: The negative sign appears

because the final velocity is less than the
initial velocity.
In this case the direction of the
acceleration is to the left (in the negative x
direction)
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