CHAPTER 1 Units, Physical Quantities & Vectors

S.I. or M.K.S. Units

Length -> meter [m] Mass -> kilogram [kg] Time -> second [s]

Derived Unit: Volume -> meter cubed [m3] Density -> kilogram per meter cubed [kg / m3 ]

Unit Prefixes
1 kilometer = 1 km = 103 m 1 kilogram = 1 kg = 103 g 295 exabytes = 295 billion gigabytes
Since exa- means 1018 giga- means 109 (billion)

These are useful for dealing with quantities that are large or small (e.g., billionth of a second).

Unit Consistency & Dimensional Analysis

-units have to be consistent, i.e., [kg] [m] Mass Length Examples: distance = velocity*time v = [?] velocity = acceleration*time a = [?]

If you forget formulas, unit consistencies are helpful

10 m/s in 2 s. How far? 50 m with speed 2 m/s. How much time?

We can use dimensional analysis to find relationship between time & height.

Unit Conversions
24 years old -> seconds (24 yrs)(365 days/yr)(24 hrs/day)(3,600 s/hr) = 7.5684 x 108 s = 756,840,000 s

3 x 108 m/s -> km/hr (3 x 108 m/s)(1 km/1,000 m)(3,600 s/hr) = 1.08 x 109 km/hr = 1.08 billion km/hr

3 g/in3 -> kg/m3 (note: 1 inch = 2.54 cm) (3 g/in3) (1 kg/1,000 g) (1 in/2.54 cm)3 x (100 cm/m)3 = 1.83.07 kg/m3 Try 9.8 m/s2 -> km/hr2 (9.8 m/s2)(1 km/1,000 m)(3,600 s/hr)2 = 127,008 km/hr2

Uncertainty & Significant Figures

-when measuring the thickness of a cardboard, you write 3 mm, NOT 3.00 mm -a fish/meat vendor does not say, meat is 2.41735 kg

What is the difference between accuracy and precision?

Accuracies / Uncertainties
56.47 0.02 mm 56.47(2) mm 47 10%

Significant Figures
Sometimes, uncertainties are not specified. The uncertainty is indicated instead by the number of meaningful digits or significant figures. 2.91 mm -> 3 significant figures -> the last digit is in the hundreths place so uncertainty is about 0.01 mm

137 km -> 3 significant figures -> uncertainty is about 1 km

Example: How many significant figures? 12 12.0 0.012 0.0120 120 1.2 x 102

Multiplication or Division
Significant figures in the results should equal the number with the fewest significant figures. ((0.745)(2.2))/3.885 = 0.42

Addition or Subtraction
The final result is determined by the number with the largest uncertainty (i.e., with fewest digits to the right of the decimal point). 27.153 + 138.2 11.74 = 153.6

 In this course, we usually give quantities with 3 significant figures. However, we have to round, NOT truncate. 525 m / 311 m = 1.688102894 = 1.69

Importance of Significant Figures

Exact = 3.141592654

Measured = Circumference / Diameter = 424 mm / 135 mm = 3.140740741

Estimates & Orders of Magnitude

Ordinary middle-aged man is in the hospital for check-up. Nurse writes 200 but forgot to include the unit. Which of the could it represent? Explain. (a) His height in meters? (b) His mass in kg? (c) Height in millimeters? (d) Age in months?