Measurement, Estimation, and

Units for Everyday Life

 Importance of Measurement

“Measurement is the lifeblood of all sciences”

“Those sciences that have not yet achieved a system of

measurement can not claim themselves to be mature subjects.”

Measurement allows scientists to quantify the natural world,

thus making studying it more efficient.
 Importance of Measurement
E.g. in MEDICINE…
 History of the SI Units
•1901: MKS (meter-kilogram-second) system by Giovanni Giorgi

•1948: 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CPGM),

the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM)
was asked to conduct an international study on measurement
needs of scientific, technical, and educational technologies.
 History of the SI Units
•1954: 10th CPGM, International System with six (6) base units
from which all other units will be derived. These are the meter,
kilogram, second, ampere, Kelvin/kelvin, and the candela.

•1960: 11th CPGM, the system was named International System of

Units

•1970: 14th CPGM, a seventh base unit, the mole, was introduced.
 The Seven Base Units
Unit Symbol Measure

kilogram kg Mass

second s Time

meter m Length

ampere A Electrical current

kelvin K Thermodynamic temperature

mole mol Quantity of matter

candela cd Luminous intensity

How are the base units defined?
Unit Definition

kilogram An international prototype kilogram of platinum-iridium in the

keeping of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures

second The duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation associated

with a specified transition of the cesium-133 atom

meter The distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458

second

ampere The current that, if maintained in two wires placed one metre
apart in a vacuum, would produce a force of 2x10-7 newton per
meter of length
kelvin The fraction 1/273.16 of thermodynamic temperature at the
triple point of water

mole Defined as containing as many elementary entities of as

substance as there are atoms in 0.012kg of carbon-12

candela The intensity in a given direction of a source emitting radiation of

frequency 540x1012 hertz and that has a radiant intensity of
a1/683 watt per steradian
Importance of Measurement

1 kilogram:
Importance of Measurement

16 hours:
 Importance of Measurement

In your everyday life, in which instances do

you make use of measurements?
“Measurement is not celebrated in our
school system . . . “
• We observe a disconnect between theory and practice . . .
• Our students are very good with unit conversion, but don’t
have a good understanding of units . . .
Some actual responses from our students when
asked to estimate the following quantities:

Dimension Student Response

Height of Faura Building 4m

Height of Instructor 10 m
Weight of Instructor 660 kg
How high is a standard door 2m
knob from the floor?

How far is UP from Ateneo? 8 km

 Activity on Measurement, Estimation, and Units for
Everyday Life
Learning Objectives:
• Develop an improved sense of scale of the basic units of mass, length, time,
and temperature and derived units such as area, volume, speed and force as
encountered in everyday life by hands-on estimation of various
dimensions/quantities
e.g. a kilogram vs. a gram, a meter vs. a centimeter, a liter vs. a milliliter, etc
• Resourcefully utilize available materials or even the human body as relative
reference to estimate the dimensions of some common items.
e.g. arm length, own height, the length and width of bond paper, the weight
of 1L of water, etc
• Perform dimensional analysis to convert between units and scales
e.g. grams to milligrams, milliliters to liters, Celcius to Farenheit
Worksheet on Measurement, Estimation, and Units for
Everyday Life
Worksheet on Measurement, Estimation, and Units for
Everyday Life
The Instructor

• Height of Instructor:
1.73m = 5’8” (with flat shoes)

• Weight of Instructor:
63kg = 138.89lbs
(barefoot, light clothing,
and before lunch)
ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH TO CARRY
ONE NEWTON?
1 Newton =
1 Newton =
• SI derived unit of force
• Mass x acceleration
• 1kg · m/s2 Weight:
• Gravitational force
acting on an object
• Weight = mass x
acceleration due to
gravity
 1 Newton =

• Convert pounds (lbs) to kilograms (kg)

• Compute for weight in Newtons (N)

Weight = mass x g, g = 9.8 m/s2
= (0.11 kg)(9.8 m/s2)
≈ 1 kgm/s2 = 1 Newton
 Speed limit on
Commonwealth Ave.
60 kph

• Convert km/hr to m/s

• Convert m/s to km/hr

 Take Home Points
• Reasonable estimates of the dimensions of some materials are possible if you are aware
or mindful that common, accessible everyday items may be used as relative reference
o e.g. length of a 20-peso bill is exactly 6 inches (15.2 cm)
o Other useful items are: fingers (thumb’s tip to first joint is approximately 1 inch, bond
paper sizes (letter is 8.5” x 11”), water bottles (volume is indicated on the bottle
usually given in ml), etc.

• Estimation made with standards will be greatly improved vs. pure guesses.
o If for example height estimates in meters are very off, recall that the standard
distance of the floor to a doorknob is one meter.
 Take Home Points

• Unit conversions should always be logical and should have units that cancel each
other out in a numerator and denominator.

• Derived units can also give a sense of scale:

o 1 cm3 = 1 mL
o Water has a density of approximately 1g/mL