Fundamentals of Physics – (Summary of Meeting-1)

Measurement & Measurement Units – SI Units – Unit Conversion – Dimensional Analysis

Section A: Introduction
Most people hear the word 'physics' and run for cover. But it's not just for rocket
scientists! You are surrounded by physics all the time, and whether you realize it or not,
you use physics every day. Physics, the study of matter and energy, is an ancient and
broad field of science.

The word 'physics' comes from the Greek 'knowledge of nature,' and in general, the field
aims to analyze and understand the natural phenomena of the universe.

One thing that may come to mind when you think of physics is the many scientific laws,
which are statements describing phenomena that have been repeatedly tested and
confirmed. This is an important part of physics. Physicists perform and repeat
experiments, sometimes ad nauseam, to formulate these laws and explain how our
universe works. These laws (such as gravity and Newton's laws of motion) are so
thoroughly tested that they are accepted as 'truths,' and they can be used to help us
predict how other things will behave.

Because physics explains natural phenomena in the universe, it's often considered to be
the most fundamental science. It provides a basis for all other sciences - without physics,
you couldn't have biology, chemistry, or anything else!

Physics is a natural science based on experiments, measurements, and mathematical

analysis with the purpose of finding quantitative physical laws for everything from the
nano-world of the micro-cosmos to the planets, solar systems and galaxies that occupy
the macro-cosmos. The laws of nature can be used to predict the behavior of the world
and all kinds of machinery. Many of the everyday technological inventions that we now
take for granted resulted from discoveries in physics. The basic laws in physics are
universal, but physics in our time is such a vast field that many subfields are almost
regarded as separate sciences.

Section B: Measurement and Measurement Units

We discover physics by learning how to measure the quantities involved in physics.
Among these quantities are length, time, mass, temperature, pressure, and electric
current.

Quantity: A physical quantity is the property of an object, something we can measure with
instruments or even by using our senses. Two simple examples of physical quantities are
the mass of an object or its temperature. We can measure both with instruments, but we
can also sense them using our hands by lifting the object or touching it!

We measure each physical quantity in its own units, by comparison with a standard. The
unit is a unique name we assign to measures of that quantity-for example, meter (m) for
the quantity length. The standard corresponds to exactly 1.0 unit of the quantity. As you
will see, the standard for length, which corresponds to exactly 1.0 m, is the distance
traveled by light in a vacuum during a certain fraction of a second. We can define a unit
and its standard in any way we care to. However, the important thing is to do so in such
a way that scientists around the world will agree that our definitions are both sensible
and practical.
Measurement is a process of detecting an unknown physical quantity by using standard
quantity. For example: Take a book and use ruler (scale) to find its length. Suppose the
length was 20 cm. You underwent through a process called Measurement where:

• The unknown physical quantity was the length of the book.

• The ruler was the standard quantity.
• 20 was the magnitude.
• cm was the unit of the book-length.

Units provide specific meaning to the magnitude of a substance. Units of measurement

provide standard to identify measurement of a physical quantity.

For example: If you say that, the volume of your notebook is 25, it provides no exact
meaning because it could be 25 mm3 or 25 cm3 or 25 m3 and many more. But if you use
unit's cm3, it provides accurate meaning that the volume of the notebook is 25 cm 3.

The laws of physics are expressed in terms of basic quantities that require a clear
definition. In mechanics, the three basic quantities are length (L), mass (M), and time (T).
All other quantities in mechanics can be expressed in terms of these three.

If we are to report the results of a measurement to someone who wishes to reproduce

this measurement, a standard must be defined. It would be meaningless if a visitor from
another planet were to talk to us about a length of 8 “glitches” if we do not know the
meaning of the unit glitch. On the other hand, if someone familiar with our system of
measurement reports that a wall is 2 meters high and our unit of length is defined to be
1 meter, we know that the height of the wall is twice our basic length unit. Likewise, if we
are told that a person has a mass of 75 kilograms and our unit of mass is defined to be 1
kilogram, then that person is 75 times as massive as our basic unit.
Having a standard unit system is important because it helps the entire world to
understand the measurements in one set of unit system.

Section C: Systems of Unit of Measurement

There are different standards and units of system used in the word. Few common systems
of measurements are:

CGS unit system: In CGS unit system, length is measured in centimeters, mass is measured
in gram and time is measured in second.

FPS unit system: In FPS system, length is measured in foot, mass is measured in pound
and time is measured in second.

MKS unit System: In MKS system, length is measured in meters, mass is measured in
kilogram and time is measured in second.
SI unit System:

Different units are used in different countries for the measurement of physical quantities.
In US, pound metrics is used commonly for indicating mass but in India, kilogram is used.
To remove these differences, SI (International System of units) system was standardized
in 1960.

The International System of Units (SI) is the metric system that is used universally as a
standard for measurements.

There are several SI units used in physics that are used to express the different quantities.
The quantities can be classified into two groups:

• Fundamental Units (Basic Units)

Fundamental units are those units that can express themselves without the
assistance of any other units. For example: Kilogram (kg) is a fundamental unit
because it is independently expressed and cannot be broken down to multiple
units.

Derived Units Derived units are those units which cannot be expressed in the absence of
fundamental units. For example: Newton (N) is a derived unit because it cannot be
expressed in the absence of fundamental unit (meter) and can be broken down to
multiple units. (Newton equals to kg*m /s2).

Section D: Unit Conversion

It is often necessary to convert from one type of unit to another. For example, if you are
reading a European cookbook, some quantities may be expressed in units of liters, and
you need to convert them to cups. or, perhaps you are reading walking directions from
one location to another and you are interested in how many miles you will be walking. In
this case, you will need to convert units of feet to miles. Let us consider a simple example
of how to convert units. Let us say that we want to convert 80 meters (m) to kilometers
(km). The first thing to do is to list the units that you have and the units that you want to
convert to. In this case, we have units in meters, and we want to convert to kilometers.
Next, we need to determine a conversion factor relating meters to kilometers. A
conversion factor is a ratio expressing how many of one unit are equal to another unit.
For example, there are 12 inches in 1 foot, 100 centimeters in 1 meter, 60 seconds in 1
minute, and so on. In this case, we know that there are 1,000 meters in 1 kilometer. Now
we can set up our unit conversion. We will write the units that we have and then multiply
them by the conversion factor so that the units cancel out, as shown:

Note that the unwanted m unit cancels, leaving only the desired km unit. You can use this
method to convert between any types of units.
Section E: Dimensional Analysis
Only quantities with like dimensions may be added (+), subtracted (-) or compared (=<>).
This rule provides a powerful tool for checking whether or not equations are
dimensionally consistent. It is also possible to use dimensional analysis to suggest
plausible equations when we know which quantities are involved. For example, consider
one of the equations of constant acceleration,

All three terms have units of length and hence this equation is dimensionally valid. Of
course, this does not tell us if the equation is physically correct, nor does it tell us whether
the constant 1/2 is correct or not.