GENERAL PHYSICS 1

PREPARED BY: JOY D. RAMIREZ, LPT

PHYSICAL QUANTITIES

RULES OF SCIENTIFIC FIGURES

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

CONVERSION OF UNITS &

SCALAR AND VECTOR

KINEMATICS
 Measurement
• the method of describing the physical world
quantitatively

Why measure?
 PHYSICAL QUANTITIES

- have a numerical value (number) and a

unit of measurement (e.g. kilograms,
meter, Newton)
- Example
3 kilograms of strawberries

Numerical value Unit of measurement

 SI UNITS
In 1960, the Eleventh General Conference on
Weights and Measures was held in Paris. They
adopted a universal system of measurement
units called Le Systeme International
de’Unites (French).

Revised version of Metric System

Composed of seven (7) base units

Table 1. SI Base Units
BASE Quantity Name of Unit SYMBOL

Length Meter m

Mass Kilogram kg

Time Second s

Electrical current Ampere A

Temperature Kelvin K

Amount of Substance Mole mol

Luminous Intensity Candela cd

 Derived Units
 made up of some combination of SI base units.
Table 2. Derived Units
Base Quantity Common Units

Volume m3
Density kg/m3
Acceleration m/s2
Force kg•m/s²
 Prefixes

• Placed before the symbol of a SI base unit to

change the magnitude of a quantity.
• All prefixes represent by a factor of 10.
• Make easier to express very large or very small
quantities.
 Conversion Factor

• An expression that shows relationship between

units.
• Used to convert one set of unit to another.
 Rules for Significant Digits

• To decide to what place we must round a calculated

result, we must first determined the number of
significant figures in each of our original measurements.
This determination is based on the following criteria:
 Rules for Significant Digits
1. All non-zero digits are significant.

2. Zeroes at the beginning of a number are not significant.

3. Zeroes within a number are significant.

4. Zeroes at the end of a number before and after the decimal point
are significant.

5. In whole numbers without a decimal point that end in one or

more zeroes - the zeroes may or may not be significant. This
ambiguity may be removed by using scientific notation.
 Scientific Notation
• Short hand method for writing numbers and easy
method for calculations.

• Made up of three components: the coefficient, the

base, and the exponent.
Example:
5.67 x 10^5
 Scientific Notation
• In order for a number to be in correct scientific notation, the
following conditions must be followed:
1. The coefficient must be greater than or equal to 1 and
less than 10.
2. The base must be 10.
3. The exponent must show the number of decimal
places that the decimal needs to be moved to change the
number to standard form. A negative exponent means that the
decimal is moved to the left when changing to standard
notation.
 Scientific Notation
Change scientific notation to standard notation:

1.4.67 x 10^7
2.8.23 x 10^-4
3.9.21 x 10 ^7
4.7.21 x 10^2
5.5.83 x10 ^-8
 Scientific Notation
Changing standard notation to scientific notation:
1. Place the decimal point after the first nonzero digit.
2. Count the number of places the decimal point is moved, and use
the number as exponent.
3. If the original number is greater than 10, the exponent is
positive. If the original number is between 1 and 10, the
exponent is zero.
4. If the original number is between 0 and 1, the exponent is
negative.
565400
0.0000786
• Exercise:
• Change these numbers to scientific notation:
• 789003
• 0.00000567
• 5556673
10233
0.00067
 Conversion of Units

• Need conversion factor/s to convert one set of unit

to another.
• Conversion factor: an expression (number) for the
relationship between units.
 Steps for Conversion of Units

1. Show what are given on the left, and what units you
want on the right.
2.Insertthe required conversion factors to change
between units.
3.Cancel units where you can, and solve the math.
Sample Problem 2:

A student determines that the density of a

certain material is 4.46 g/cm^3. What would be
the density of this material in g/L?
Sample Problem 3:

Imagine the water is leaking from a

container, at a rate of 1.2 ml/hour. If this rate
does not change, how many liters of water will
be lost in a week?
 Scalar vs Vector
• Distance- a scalar quantity
• The length of path travelled by an object.
• How much something has changed its position.
• Displacement- a vector quantity
Change in position and direction was specify.
 Scalar vs Vector
• Speed – is a scalar quantity
• How fast the object is moving.
• Describe the distance travelled by an object in
relation to time

• Velocity – is a vector quantity

• Describe how fast the object is moving with
specified direction