PHY433

Chapter 1
Physical Quantities and Units
DR ROSNAH BINTI ZAKARIA
JAB. FIZIK DAN BAHAN
FAKULTI SAINS GUNAAN
UiTM, SHAH ALAM
TEL (HP): 019-3318093
TEL (O): 03-5544 4492
EMEL : rosna593@uitm.edu.my
ALT. EMEL: rosna593@gmail.com

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 Chapter 1
1. Physical Quantities and Units.

2. Base Physical Quantities and their SI units.

3. Derived Physical Quantities and their SI units.
4. Dimensional Analysis.
5. Unit Conversions.
6. Significant Figures.

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 Chapter 1
At the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. State basic quantities and their respective SI units: length (m),

time (s), mass (kg), electrical current (A), temperature (K),
amount of substance (mol) and luminosity (cd).
2. State derived quantities and their respective units and symbols:
velocity (m s-1), acceleration (m s-2), work (J), force (N), pressure
(Pa), energy (J), power (W) and frequency (Hz).
3. Use dimensional analysis to check homogeneity and construct
equation of physics.
4. Perform conversion between SI and British
units. 5.Use the significant figure correctly.

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 Chapter 1

1. Base Physical Quantities and their SI Units

2. Derived Physical Quantities and their SI Units

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 Chapter 1

• Physical quantity is defined as a quantity which

can be measured.
• It can be categorized into two types
a) Basic (base) quantity
b)Derived quantity
• Basic quantity is defined as a quantity
which cannot be derived from any physical
• quantities.
Derived
can be expressed
quantity in
is term
defined
of base
as aquantity.
quantity
which

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 Chapter 1
Basic (base) quantity
Quantity Symbol SI Unit Symbol
Length l metre m
Mass m kilogram kg
Time t second s
Temperature T/ Kelvin K
Electric current I ampere A
Amount of substance N mole mol
Luminous Intensity candela cd

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 Chapter 1
Derived quantity (examples)
Derived quantity Symbol Formulae Unit
Velocity v s/t m s-1

Volume V lwt M3

Acceleration a v/t m s-2

Density  m/V kg m-3

Momentum p mv kg m s-1
Force F ma kg m s-2 @ N
Work W Fs kg m2 s-2 @ J

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 Chapter 1

1.3 Dimensional Analysis

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 Chapter 1
 Dimension is defined as a technique or method which the physical
quantity can be expressed in terms of combination of basic
quantities.
 It can be written as [physical quantity or its symbol]
 Table shows the dimension of basic quantities.
[Basic Quantity] Symbol Unit
[mass] or [m] M kg
[length] or [l] L m
[time] or [t] T s
[electric current] or [I] A@I A
[temperature] or [T]  K
[amount of substance] or [N] N mole

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 Chapter 1
 Dimension can be treated as algebraic quantities through the
procedure called dimensional analysis.
 The uses of dimensional analysis are
 to determine the unit of the physical quantity.

 to determine whether a physical equation is correct or not dimensionally

true by using the principle of homogeneity.

Dimension on the L.H.S. = Dimension on the R.H.S

 to derive a physical equation.

 Note:
 Dimension of dimensionless constant is 1,

 Dimensions cannot be added or subtracted.

 The validity of an equation cannot determined by dimensional analysis.

 The validity of an equation can only be determined by experiment.

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 Chapter 1
Example 1 :

Determine a dimension and the S.I. unit for the

following quantities:

a) Velocity
b) Acceleration
c) Linear momentum
d) Density
e) Force

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 Chapter 1
Solution :
Velocity change in displacement
a.

time interval
or
v s
t
v TL  LT 1

The S.I. unit of velocity is

m s1.
ρ ML3 F  MLT2 p MLT1 a
LT2
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 Chapter 1
Example 2 :

Determine Whether the following expressions

dimensionally correct or are
not.
a. s  u t  21 a t 2 where s,
displacement, initial velocity, acceleration
u, a and and t the time of an
represent the
object respectively.

b. v  u  2 g s
where s, u, v g represent the
and initialvelocity, velocity and
displacement,
final
gravitational acceleration respectively. the

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 Chapter 1
Solution :
a. Dimension on the LHS : s L


Dimension on the RHS : ut  u t  LT 1

 T  L  at   at  1LT T 

1
2
2 1
2
2 -2 2


Dimension on the LHS = dimension
 L
on the RHS
Hence the equation above is homogeneous or
dimensionally correct.

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 Chapter 1
Example 3 :

The period, T of a simple pendulum depends on its length l,

acceleration due to gravity, g and mass, m. By using
dimensional analysis, obtain an equation for period of the
simple pendulum.

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 Chapter 1
Solution :
T  l x g y mz

T  kl x g y m z …………………(1)

T  k l x g y m z
T  1 L L T  M
x 2 y z

T  L x y T  2 y M z

L 0T 1M 0  L x y T  2 y M z

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 Chapter 1
Solution : x  y  0 …………………(2)
 2y 1
yz  0 12…………………(3)

x   12 0
x  12

T  kl 11 g  2 m 0
2

l
Tk
g

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 Chapter 1
Example 4 :

Determine the unit of  in term of basic unit by using the

equation below:
4
Pi  Po 
R
where Pi and Po are pressures of the soap bubble and R is the radius
of the bubble.

Therefore the unit of  is kg s-2 γ M T 2

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 Chapter 1

1.4 Units and Its Conversions

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 Chapter 1
• Unit is defined as a standard size of measurement of physical
quantities.

• Examples :
– 1 second is defined as the time required for 9,192,631,770
vibrations of radiation emitted by a caesium-133 atom.
– 1 kilogram is defined as the mass of a platinum-iridium
cylinder kept at International Bureau of Weights and
Measures Paris.
– 1 meter is defined as the length of the path travelled by light
in vacuum during a time interval of

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 Chapter 1
• The unit of basic quantity is called base unit
• The unit of derived quantity – called derived unit
– addition unit for base unit:
• unit of plane angle - radian (rd)
 rad 180o
180o
1 rad  57.296o
 
• unit of solid angle- steradian (sr)

• The common system of units used today are S.I unit (System
International/metric system) and cgs unit - UK.

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 Chapter 1
Unit Prefixes
 It is used for presenting larger and smaller values.

 Table shows all the unit prefixes.

Prefix Value Symbol

tera  1012 T
giga  109 G
mega  106 M
kilo  103 k
deci  101 d
centi  102 c
milli  103 m
micro  106 
nano  109 n
pico  1012 p

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 Chapter 1
• Conversion of Unit
• Conversion factors between SI and British units for length and
mass only.
Length Mass

1 m = 39.37 in = 3.281 ft 1 kg = 103 g

1 in = 2.54 cm 1 slug = 14.59 kg

1 km = 0.621 mi 1 lb = 0.453 592 kg

1 mi = 5280 ft = 1.609 km 1 kg = 0.0685 slug

1 angstrom (Å) = 1010 m

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 Chapter 1
Example 5:

Solve the following problems of unit conversion.

a) 30 mm2 to m2
b) 865 km h1 to m s1
c) 300 g cm3 to kg m3
d) 17 cm to Inch
e) 24 mi h1 to km s1

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 Chapter 1
Example 6:

A pyramid has a height of 481 feet and its base covers an area of 13.0
acres. If the volume of the pyramid is given by V = 1/3 Bh where B is
the area of the base and h is the height, find the volume of the pyramid
in cubic meters (m3).
(1 acre = 43560 ft2, 1 ft = 12 inch, 1 inch = 2.54 cm)

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 Chapter 1
Example 7:

The sides of a rectangle are 5 inches and 10 inches respectively. Find

the area of the rectangle in m2. (Given 1 inch = 2.54 cm)

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 Chapter 1
Example 8:

The balairongseri of an old istana in Kg Atok has a floor area

measuring 44 hasta by 101 jengkal. If 1 /7 asfa equals 750 cm and 1
jengkal equals 200 mm, determine the floor area in units of m2.

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 Chapter 1

1.5 Significant Figures

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 Chapter 1
• ACCURACY
• In the fields of engineering, industry and
statistics,the accuracy of a measurement system
is the degree of closeness of measurements of
a quantity to its actual (true) value.

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 Chapter 1
PRECISION
• The of
precision a
measurement system,
also
called reproducibility or re
peatability, is the
to
degree which repeated
measurements under
unchanged
conditions
show the same results.

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 Chapter 1

Low Accuracy High Accuracy High Accuracy

High Precision Low Precision High
Precision

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 Chapter 1
ILLUSTRATION

• The significant figures (also called significant digits and

abbreviated sig figs, sign.figs or sig digs) of a number
are those digits that carry meaning contributing to its
precision.
• Zeroes are sometime used to locate the decimal point,
when the zeroes are used in that way we say that they
are not significant.

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 Chapter 1
• SIGNIFICANT FIGURE

• There are 2 kinds of numbers:

– Exact: the amount of money in your account. Known
with
certainty.
– Approximate: weight, height—anything
MEASURED. No measurement is perfect.
• When a measurement is recorded only those digits that
are
dependable are written down.
• If you measured the width of a paper with your ruler you might
record 21.7cm.
• To a mathematician 21.70, or 21.700 is the same But,
to a 33
 Chapter 1
• SIGNIFICANT FIGURE

• 21.700cm to a scientist means the measurement is accurate to

within one thousandth of a cm.

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 Chapter 1
• RULE-1

• All non-zero digits are considered significant.

Example: the number 1 has one significant figure. In
20 and 300, the first figure is significant while the
others may or may not be (see below). 123.45 has
five significant figures: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.. For
example, 1 Kg sugar

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 Chapter 1
• RULE-2

• Zeros appearing anywhere between

two non-zero digits are
significant. Example:
101.12 has five significant figures: 1, 0, 1,
1 and 2.

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 Chapter 1
• RULE-3
• Leading zeros not significant. For
are
example, has two significant
0.00052
figures: 5 and 2.

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 Chapter 1

• RULE-4

• Trailing zeros in a number containing a decimal

point are significant. For example, 12.2300 has
six significant figures: 1, 2, 2, 3, 0 and 0. The
number 0.000122300 still has only six significant
figures (the zeros before the 1 are
significant). In addition, 120.00 not
significant figures. has five

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 Chapter 1
• Cont…

• This convention clarifies the precision of such

numbers; for example, if a result accurate to four
decimal places is given as 12.23 then it might
be understood that only two decimal places of
accuracy are available. Stating the result as
12.2300 makes clear that it is accurate to four
decimal places.

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 Chapter 1
• RULE-5
• Alternatively, the above can be summarized by three
rules.
– All non-zero digits are significant.
– In a number without a decimal point, only zeros
BETWEEN non-zero digits are significant (unless
a bar indicates the last significant digit--see
below).
– In a number with a decimal point, all zeros to the
right of the left-most non-zero digit are significant.

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 Chapter 1
• RULE-6
• The significance of trailing zeros in a number not
containing a decimal point can be ambiguous. For
example, it may not always be clear if a number
like 1300 is accurate to the nearest unit (and just
happens coincidentally to be an exact multiple of a
hundred) or if it is only shown to the nearest
hundred due to rounding or uncertainty. Various
conventions exist to address this issue:

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 Chapter 1
• CONVENTIONS (RULE-6)
• A bar may be placed over the last significant digit;
any
trailing zeros following this are insignificant.
• The last significant figure of a number may be underlined;
for example, "20000" has two significant figures.
• A decimal point may be placed after the number; for
example "100." indicates specifically that three significant
figures are meant.

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 Chapter 1
• RULE-7

• A number with all zero digits (e.g. 0.000) has no

significant digits

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 Chapter 1
How many sig figs?

7
40
0.5
0.00003
7 x 105
7,000,000

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 Chapter 1
How many sig figs?

1.2
2100
56.76
4.00
0.0792
7,083,000,000

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 Chapter 1
How many sig figs?

3401
2100
2100.0
5.00
0.00412
8,000,050,000

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 Chapter 1
Accuracy and Precision AGAIN

• The accuracy of a • The precision of

decimal number is decimal
given by the number of given by the position
a of
significant figures in the rightnumber
most is
the number. significant digit.

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 Chapter 1

Have Fun Measuring

and Happy Calculating!

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 Chapter 1

“to give full measure

and to weigh with the
right scales”
(Qur'an 17:35)

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