GENERAL PHYSICS 1

MR. RHANY PEPITO

LESSON 1: MEASUREMENT

MEASUREMENT
 Measurement is made up of a number and
a unit.
 For example, the length of a table is 2
meters long

INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS

 In 1960, the units of the metric system
CONVERSION OF UNITS
were streamlined by an international
conference held in France.  Many problems in physics require the
 The conference then created the SI conversion of one unit of measurement to
which stands Système International d’ another.
Unités or the International System of  DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS- technique of
Units that builds the seven metric converting between units
systems which called the base units

CONVERSION OF UNITS
LARGE TO A SMALL UNIT- multiply the given
number of the large unit by the number of small
units contained in one large unit

SMALL TO A LARGE UNIT- divide the given

number of the small unit by the number of small
units contained in one large unit.

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
 It is a method of writing very small or very
large numbers in terms of decimal
numbers between 1 and 10 multiplied by
power of ten.

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HOW TO EXPRESS SCIENTIFIC NOTATION?
Simply follow the LEI-RID mnemonic.
 Moving the decimal point to the left
increases the exponent (LE for left, I for
increase).
 moving the decimal to the right decreases
the exponent (RI for right, D for decrease)
LESSON 2: PRECISION AND ACCURACY
PRECISION
 A reliable measurement will give the same
results under the same condition. The
measurement is then precise, or it has
high precision.
 a set of measurement is precise when it is
consistent.
THE CLOSER THE VALUES TO ONE
ANOTHER THE MORE PRECISE
HOW TO HAVE PRECISION?
 You always must make sure that you have
reliable measurement. One way to do this
is by repeating the measurement several
times.
 You can numerically describe the
consistency (precision) of measurements
using variance. This measures how far or
close the measurement are from the
mean (average).
SOLVING FOR PRECISION
1. Variance (𝜎 2 ) is defined as the as the
average of the squared difference of the
measurements (𝓍) from the mean (𝑌ഥ).
2. The square root of the variance is called
standard deviation (𝜎).
3. A standard deviation close to zero (0)
indicates that the data points are close to
the mean. High standard deviation
indicates that the measurements are
spread out over a wide range of values.
ACCURACY
 Another way of testing the reliability of
a measurement is by comparing it with
a standard value.
 If the set of measurements is close to
the true or accepted value, it is said to
have high accuracy.
RANDOM AND SYSTEMATIC ERROR
RANDOM ERROR- Come from unknown or
predictable variations in experimental situations.
SYSTEMATIC ERROR- attributed to measuring
instruments used or techniques employed.
A RELIABLE MEASUREMENT IS BOTH
ACCURATE AND PRECISE. ANY
MEASUREMENT NOT HAVING THESE
CHARACTERISTICS WILL EVENTUALLY BE
RENDERED USELESS.
LESSON 3: SCALAR AND VECTOR
Physical quantities can be classified as scalars or
vectors.
SCALAR- a quantity that can only be described by
its magnitude (numerical value consisting of the
number and its unit).
VECTOR- A physical quantity characterized by
both magnitude and direction
- for vector quantities, you also must
consider the directions of the given
quantities.
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 REPRESENTING VECTORS USING
GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIVES
- Vector quantities are normally denoted by
a symbol with an arrow on top
- Vectors are graphically represented by
arrows. At the end of an arrow are the head
(or tip) and the tail.
- The length of the arrow describes the
magnitude of the vector, and the arrow’s
head points toward the direction of the
vector.
ADDING VECTORS
GRAPHICAL METHOD: PARALLELOGRAM
METHOD ANALYTICAL: COMPONENT METHOD
- The parallelogram method is useful if you - x component of the resultant (𝑅𝑥) is simply
are adding two vectors. the sum of the x components of the vectors
GRAPHICAL: POLYGON METHOD (𝐴𝑥 + 𝐵𝑥).

- The polygon method is also known as the

head-to-tail method. This is easy to use is
you want to add more than two vectors.

LESSON 4: ADDING VECTORS

ANALYTICAL: PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM
- The graphical method in adding vectors is
a powerful tool when a visualization of the
resultant vector is needed.
- However, more accurate results can be
found using the analytical method. LESSON 5: MOTION IN ONE DIMENSION
MECHANICS- Study of Motion
The length of these sides is related through the
Pythagorean Theorem. KINEMATICS- mathematical description of
motion.
𝑐2=𝑎2+𝑏2
DYNAMICS- the study of the cause of
motion.
MOTION- defined as a continuous change of
position with respect to a certain reference
point
Types of Motion
1) LINEAR MOTION- motion in a straight line.
2) PROJECTILE MOTION- the motion of a
projectile or a body in a curved path with
constant acceleration.
3) CIRCULAR MOTION- the motion of a body
along a circle.
4) ROTATIONAL MOTION- the motion of a
body turning around an axis.
5) OSCILLATING MOTION- is swinging from
side to side

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DISTANCE AND DISPLACEMENT ACCELERATION- measure of how fast or slow
velocity changes.
POSITION- It is the fundamental concept in
describing the motion of object. - A body accelerates whenever there is a
change in speed, a change in the direction
- It is the location of a body in space with of motion of the body, or a change in both
reference to a fixed point. speed and direction.
POINT OF REFERENCE- is the object or
background used for comparing different positions
of an object.
DISTANCE- refers to the total length of a path and
is a scalar quantity.
DISPLACEMENT- refers to the straight-line DECELERATION- acceleration is negative when a
distance between the starting points and a vector body slows down
quantity
SPEED AND VELOCITY
SPEED- Describe how fast or how slow a body
moves.
It is the distance traveled divided by the time of
travel; therefore, we will have the formula of:

INSTANTANEOUS SPEED- Speed at a particular

moment
AVERAGE SPEED- The ratio of the total distance
covered, and the total amount of time traveled
VELOCITY- The quantity that contains both the
speed and the direction of motion of a body.

AVERAGE VELOCITY- the total displacement of

the moving body divided by the time it takes for that
displacement.
UNIFORM CIRCULAR MOTION- speed is
constant, but its velocity is changing

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