MINISTRY OF EDUCTION

SECONDARY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME

INTEGRATED SCIENCE

GRADE 7

WEEK 3 LESSON 2

Topic: Measurement
Sub-topic: Basic quantities used for Measurement
Objectives: Given information students will state the basic quantities and their units used
for measuring in science.

Definition: The accurate quantity of a substance can only be known by measurement.

Think about it!!! Measurement can be expressed in figures and standard

measurements. We use different instruments like measuring
tape or scale for the measurement of length, beam balance
for measuring masses, and clock for the measurement of
time.

The process of comparing an unknown physical quantity

with a known standard quantity of the same kind is called
measurement.
Measurement is an extremely important
Measurement is essential to know the exact physical
segment of our lives. Without measurement
quantity of the substances in our daily life. Those substances
human race can't trade, can't organize or
even can't progress in science, which are available in our surrounding can be measured are
mathematics and technology. We use known as physical quantities. Some of the examples of
measurement while we cook in the kitchen, physical quantities are the area, mass, time, length,
taking our medicine, while travelling, temperature, etc.
shopping and building objects. Those things which cannot be
measured are called non-
physical quantity. Some of the examples of a non- physical
quantity are love, kindness, anger, interest, feelings etc.

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Types of Physical Quantities
There are two types of physical quantities. They are discussed below,
1. Fundamental Physical Quantity: Those physical quantities, which can neither be
derived from other quantities nor be further resolved into simpler ones, are called
fundamental quantities. The units of fundamental quantities are called fundamental
units or basic units. For example, the length of a body is the fundamental quantity as
it cannot be expressed in terms of another quantity.

2. Derived Physical Quantity: Those physical quantities, which depend on two or more
fundamental quantities or power of the fundamental quantity, are called derived
quantities. The units of derived quantities are called derived units. For example, an
area is a derived quantity. Since area= l × b, so the value of the area depends on the
value of length and breadth.

Based on the nature of activities around us there are three fundamental quantities that we
interact the most in our day to day lives. These are as follows;
How?? 1. Time
2. Length and
3. Mass
To answer all of the above questions in the text box, mankind
had developed the tools to measure these basic quantities since
the beginning of the civilizations.
For example; still today we try to use "arms-length" or "our
foot length" to measure the lengths. These are very basic and
obvious ways to measure length. But what do we learn when
We mostly interact with these we tell the length of something in terms of the length of our
fundamental quantities in our foot?
daily lives, therefore there is a
Well, we are comparing one length to another. When we tell
need to measure them because some lengths (for example; length of a table, length of
we want to know; how far? How playground or length of the school wall) in terms of the length
long? How much? How high? of our foot THEN the FOOT LENGTH becomes THE
How long? STANDARD of measuring the length.

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Unit

NOTE: Fundamental unit

Without measurement, Those units whose value does not depend on any other units are
we cannot estimate the fundamental units. For example, Length of an object i.e meter,
total amount of physical the mass of an object i.e kilogram, time i.e second.
quantity. Different units of fundamental quantities combine to form a
system of units. The one that we will be exploring is
SI system
The full form of this system is the System de international Unit. Did you Know?
This system includes seven fundamental units such as the unit of
electricity- Ampere (A), unit of temperature- Kelvin (K), unit of There are four systems of unit of
light- intensity (I) and the unit of amount of matter- mole (mol) measurement:
along with three fundamental units of MKS system i.e. meter,
A. FPS system: The full form of this system
kilogram and second.
is Foot- Pound and second system. In this
Here are the seven fundamental units used to measure the system, the fundamental units of length,
fundamental quantities: mass and time are foot, pound and second.
Fundamental quantity Unit Symbol B. CGS system: The full form of this system
is Centimeter- Gram- Second system. In
Length Meter m
this system, the fundamental units of
Mass Kilogram kg length, mass and time are centimetres,
gram, and second.
Time Second s
C. MKS system: The full form of this system
Temperature Kelvin K
is Meter- Kilogram- Second system. In this
Electric current Ampere A system, the fundamental units of length,
mass and time are meters, kilogram and
Luminous intensity Candela cd
second.
Amount of substance Mole mol
D. SI system (to the left)

Reference
1. https://sciencespot.net/Pages/classmetric.html
2. http://www.math.com/tables/general/measures/lengths.htm
3. https://www.ipracticemath.com/worksheets/measurement
4. https://calculate.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/02/Measurement-Length-Area-
Volume.pdf

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