Physical Quantities & Measurements

Physical Quantities
 Quantities which are accessible and can be measured, are regarded as
Physical Quantities
• Examples: length, mass, force, time, energy etc.
 Measurement of those physical quantities should be performed by
relevant standard instrument
 Physical quantities can be accessible;
• Directly (e.g. measuring length of a table)
• Indirectly (e.g. measuring mass of Sun)
 Physical Quantities are expressed in form a numerical magnitude and a
suitable unit. i.e. (Number) (Unit)
• Example: 100 m, 40 kg, 60 s
 Types:
 Base Quantities
 Derived Quantities

Physical Units
 Unit is term that quantifies a physical property in measurement.
 In order to make a complete sense of the physical quantity, a
suitable unit must be put in place with it, such as meter for length
and seconds for time.
 A coherent system of units, proposed by scientists i.e. M.K.S
(mass, kilogram, seconds) system, also known as System
International (S.I) of units is used as standard for physical
measurements or numerical calculations.
o Two other system of units used before SI system was
 F.P.S (foot, pounds, seconds)
 C.G.S (centimeter, grams, seconds) systems.

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Types of Physical Quantities

 Base Quantities: Quantities which are regarded as fundamental or
basic in nature.

o Base quantities are regarded as the parent quantities.

o There are only 07 base quantities set as standard by scientists.

 Base Units: Units that relates a base physical quantity is regarded as

Base Unit.

o Below is the list of 07 base quantities and base units

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 Derived Quantities: Quantities which are multiple or divisible of base

quantities among themselves.

o Example:

o Example:

 Derived Units: Unit that relates a derived physical quantity is regarded

as Base Unit.

• There are numerous derived quantities and their units, few of them are
given below;

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Prefixes
• Prefix is a short alphanumeric symbol, which is appended to a
measuring unit of any physical quantity.

o For example: 1000 ⇨ 103 ⇨ kilo ⇨ k

o For example: 0.001 ⇨ 10⁻³ ⇨ milli ⇨ m

• Prefixes are multiples or sub multiples of a numerical value represented

in power of 10.

• Prefixes are used to express quite large or small numerical values in a

more manageable and standard way.

 Prefixes with units can be represented as follows:

 10-2 meters ⇨ 1cm
 106 Bytes ⇨ 1MB’s
 10-9 seconds ⇨ 1ns

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Scientific Notation
 Scientific notation is a standard and compact way of representing
relatively large or quite small numbers (measurements) in power of 10.
o To represent a number in form of scientific notation, it can be
done by multiplying the coefficient (n) with base (10) having an
exponent (e) of the given value/measurement.
o n x 10e

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Significant Figures
 Significant figures (or significant digits) are the number of digits in a
given value or a measurement, necessary to decide the accuracy and
precision of measurement.
o The number of significant figures in a result is simply the number
of figures that are known with some degree of reliability.
o For example: The number 13.2 is said to have 3 significant figures
while number 13.20 is said to have 4 significant figures.

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Accuracy: Closeness of measured values to the standard value.

Precision: Closeness of measured values to one another.

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Gauges
Length Measuring Time Measuring

Meter Rule Vernier Caliper Micrometer Screw Stop Watch

Gauge

1mm / 0.1cm 0.1mm / 0.01cm 0.01mm/0.001cm 0.1 sec

An instrument used A precise instrument An extremely An instrument
to measure used to measure precise instrument use to measure
dimensions such as dimensions such as used to measure time interval of
length, width and length, thickness, dimensions such as any event or
height of relatively diameter and depth of diameter, phenomena.
large objects. relatively small thickness of very
objects. thin or small
objects.

It is usually marked It is usually marked in It is usually marked It is usually marked

in mm, cm and mm, cm and inches. in mm and cm. in seconds and
inches. minutes.

It has only one scale: It has two scales: It has two scales: It has multi
 Main scale.  Main Scale (Fixed)  Main Scale (Fixed) options :
 Vernier Scale (Sliding)  Circular Scale  Stop/Start
(Rotatable)  Pause/Reset

Least Count
 Minimum measurement which can be made using any instrument is
known as Least Count of that instrument.

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