Quantities and Units

In the year of 1790 King

Louis XVI of France was
weary of the
inconsistencies of
measurement that was
hurting trade.
He ordered a new system
of measurements be
developed.

Quantity

A quantity in the general sense is a property ascribed to phenomena,

bodies, or substances that can be quantified for, or assigned to, a particular
phenomenon, body, or substance. Examples are mass and electric charge.

A quantity in the particular sense is a quantifiable or assignable property

ascribed to a particular phenomenon, body, or substance. Examples are the
mass of the moon and the electric charge of the proton.

A physical quantity is a quantity that can be used in the mathematical

equations of science and technology.

A unit is a particular physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention,

with which other particular quantities of the same kind are compared to
express their value.

The value of a physical quantity is the quantitative expression of a

particular physical quantity as the product of a number and a unit, the
number being its numerical value. Thus, the numerical value of a particular
physical quantity depends on the unit in which it is expressed.

Base Units
A base unit is a unit which
does not depend on any
other unit or which is
independent. It is also
known as a fundamental
unit and the unit which is
derived from the
fundamental unit is
known as derived unit.

Derived Units
Some SI derived units
Name

Symbol

Quantity

square metre

m2

area

m2

cubic metre

m3

volume

m3

metre per second

m/s

speed, velocity

ms1

metre per second

squared

m/s2

acceleration

ms2

kilogram per cubic

metre

kg/m3

density, mass
density

m3kg

cubic metre per

mole

m3/mol

molar volume

m3mol1

Newton

Force

N, kg*m/s2

Joule

Energy, Work

J, kg*m2/s2

Watt

Watt

Power

Watt, kg*m2/s3

Mass
Unit of mass
(kilogram)
This international
prototype, made of
platinum-iridium, is kept
at the BIPM under
conditions specified by the
1st CGPM in 1889.
Bureau International des
Poids et Mesures
International Bureau of
Weights and Measures

Mass
Of all the worlds kilograms,
only the one in Sevres
really counts.
It is kept in a triple-locked
safe at a chateau and rarely
sees the light of day
Only used mostly for
comparison with other
cylinders shipped in
periodically from around the
world.

Length
Formerly
1/10 million of a quarter of the earths circumference
the meter was intended to equal 10-7 or one ten-millionth of the length
of the meridian through Paris from pole to the equator.

In 1889
a new international prototype was made of an alloy of platinum with 10
percent iridium, to within 0.0001, that was to be measured at the melting
point of ice.

In 1960
Meter was defined as equal to the wavelength of krypton-86 radiation.

in 1983
The meter is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a
time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

Time
Unit of time (secs)
The unit of time, the second, was defined originally as the fraction
1/86,400 of the mean solar day.
the 13th CGPM (1967) decided to replace the definition of the second by
the following (affirmed by the CIPM in 1997 that this definition refers to
a cesium atom in its ground state at a temperature of 0 K):

The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation
corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the
ground state of the cesium 133 atom.

Prefixes