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CONCEPT MAPPING
Physical
Unit
Derived
quantity
Basic
quantity
Imperial
unit
SI unit
c.g.s
Dimension
analysis
Measurement
and Errors
Random
error
Precision
Accuracy
Systematic
error
Introduction
Almost all physics quantities whether they are scalars or vectors are stated with their amount
(magnitude) and their units. Exclusively for vectors, another additional requirement is that the
direction must also be included. Quantities that are not stated with their proper units practically
have no meaning, ambiguous and confusing. In educational establishments and most industries, a
special form of metric system known as the System International or SI is now in general use.
However in some areas of works, other system of unit such as Imperial Unit system still being
used widely especially in engineering and social communication. For an appreciation of its
importance, try to make sense of the statements below.
The velocity of the aircraft is 20 due East before it explodes
The velocity of the air craft is 20 km/h due east before it explodes
The velocity of the aircraft is 500 m/s due east before it explodes
The first line of the statement has an expression of the magnitude but without any unit included
therefore,the statement has no meaning what so ever. The second statement, even though has
magnitude and its unit attached but it does not come to the sense as such stated speed is too low
for an aircraft. For the purpose of comparison, the stated speed is about the speed of a person
achieved in 100 m run. The third line of the statement seems acceptable as it is expressed
correctly and sensibly.
Basic quantity
Length
Symbol of
quantity
Basic unit
L, l
Symbol of
unit
Meter
Kilogram
kg
Mass
M, m
Time
T, t
Second
Temperature
, T
Kelvin
Ampere
Electric current
displaceme nt
time
Hence the unit for velocity, v is meter over second, m s-1 as the unit for displacement is meter and
time is second.
b) Electric charge is related to two basic quantities namely current and time through an
expression
q = current x time
Hence the unit for an electric charge, q is Ampere-second , A.s or Coulomb, C as unit for current
is ampere and second for time.
The method to determine two derived quantities as given above is also applied for other derived
quantities. The units for several derived quantities are given in the table below.
Table 1.2: Derived quantities and their units
Derived quantity
acceleration
Force
pressure
energy
voltage
density
momentum
Symbol
a
F
P
E or W
V
Equation
Derived unit
v/t
ma
F/A
F.s
W/q
m/V
mv
m s-2
kg m s-2 (N)
N m-2
kg m2 s-2 (J)
J C-1 (V)
kg m-3
kg m s-1
As can be seen in the table, some of the derived units are given special names after their founder
such as Newton (N) for kg m s-2, Joule (J) for kg m-2 s-2, Hertz (H) for s-1 and Volt (V) for J C-1.
= 2.54 cm
= 0.914 m
= 1.61 km
Mass
= 453.6 g
= 28.35 g
1 lb
1 oz
That is the quantities that to be put into the formula must be in SI unit. Any non-SI stated values
should therefore be converted to their respective SI unit. If the stated values are already in other
metric system, for conversion one needs to know the prefixes as given in the table below. And if
the stated values are in Imperial Unit System, conversion factor is required.
Table 1.3: Metric Prefixes
Prefixes
Nano
Micro
Mili
Centi
Deci
Deka
Hecto
Kilo
Mega
Giga
value
Abbreviation
10-9
10-6
10-3
10-2
10-1
101
102
103
106
109
m
c
d
da
h
k
M
G
Example
nano farad, nf
Micrometer, m
Milligram, mg
Centimeter, cm
decimeter, dm
decameter, dam
Hectogram, hg
Kilometer, km
Mega gram, Mg
Gig gram, Gg
Besides, the other type of conversion of units that is very important to understand is to change the
units from one prefixes to one another. For example if we want to convert from kilogram (kg) to
milligram (mg), we can use method below.
kg
1000
1000
1000
1000
1 kg
1kg
mg
= ? mg
= 1 1000 1000
= 1 000 000 mg
100
10
km
10
1000
cm
100
mm
1000
5 mm = ? km
5 mm = 5 10 100 1000
= 0.000005 km
Moreover, if we have units in square or cubic or else, we still can use this method. We just have
to put the power of the number to the value of conversions. Let say if the conversion need us to
convert from cm2 to m2 and m3 to cm3, just follow the method.
( 100)2
2
( 100)3
2
cm
( 100)2
10 cm2
10 cm2
= ? m2
= 10 (100)2
= 0.001 m2
cm3
( 100)3
45 m3 = ? cm3
45 m3 = 45 (100)3
= 45 000 000 cm3
Example 1
Convert the following quantities to their SI unit. Given that 1ml =1 cm3 and 1 mile = 1.609
km.
i) 20 km h-1
ii) 10 mg mm-3
iii) 15 ml min-1
iv) 60 mile h-1
Solution
i)
20 km h-1
= ____ m s-1
20km 1000m 1h
h
1km 3600s
= 5.6 m s-1
ii)
3
10mg 1000mm 1 10 6 kg
mm3 1m 3 1mg
= 10 000 kg m-3
iii) 15 ml min-1 = ____ m3 s-1
15ml 1cm 3 1 10 2 m
1 min
60s
h
1mile 1km 3600s
=26.82 m s-1
RHS :
mv 2
r
kg m s-2
ma
kg ms 1
m
kgms2
Unit on the both sides are coherent. Therefore the equation is dimensionally valid.
b) The force needed to move a plate in a liquid is stated as F= Av/ l where is the coefficient
of viscosity, A is the area of the plate and v/l is the velocity gradient. Determine the SI unit
for .
Fl
Nm
Nsm 2
1
2
vA ms m
Figure 1.2: The non zero reading without any object placed on a weighing scale
contribute to the systematic error.
Systematic error could be corrected or even eliminated. One has to aware and able to identify the
source of this error and adjustment could be made to the readings. For example, a student aware
the weighing scale used in measuring mass of few samples have zero error of +1 kg. He tabulates
the readings taken for correction as shown in the table below.
Table 1.4: Reading with and without correction for zero error
Sample
Sample A
Sample B
Sample C
3.5 kg
5 kg
6.7 kg
2.5 kg
4 kg
5.7 kg
In the above table, it shown that no matter what the mass of the object, in order to have greater
accuracy, the 1 kg must be minus from the measurement readings. If this is not done, the
systematic error of 1 kg contributed by the zero error will be included in the readings. This error
will go into other calculations.
If the calculation is based on the difference between the two readings, for example in the
calculation of slope, the error will be eliminated and so it does not affect the end result.
Measurements are made on a few samples of object of increasing masses using the same
weighing scale which are having zero error of certain values as a result of the measurement is
shown in the graph below. The corrected value is depicted by a dotted line. This graph illustrates
how the true readings are produced by elimination of the systematic error on the samples.
y (mass)
x (sample)
The systematic error causes the values to change by the same amount for each reading
therefore it does not change the linearity of the graph and hence does not change the
slope of the graph.
Imagine you are measuring the diameter of a very long and uniform wire. Measurements are
carried out and repeated many-many times at different points along the wire. We can see we get
sets of similar reading but between these sets the readings are slightly differ from each other.
Each set have different percentage of repeatability (frequency) and the percentage becomes larger
as it comes to the true value of the diameter of the wire if there is no systematic error.
In random error, method of averaging could be used to address the error. The average value could
be closed to the true value.
X
N
10
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Topic Summary
Basic quantities are fundamental quantities in physics that they are not derived or formed
by combination of other quantities.
There are only 5 basic quantities which are length, time, mass, temperature and current,
with their own unit.
Special form of metric system known as the System International or SI is now in general
use especially in communication and education.
Derived units are products of combining several basic units. They way how there are
combined depend on how the quantities are related to the basic quantities such as
velocity, acceleration, momentum and so on.
Uniformity of units system is needed in scientific writing and communication. The
uniformity is achieved through unit conversion.
Accuracy is the degree of conformity of a measured quantity to its actual value and
precision is the degree to which further measurements will show the same or similar
results.
Variations of readings are due to what we called as random error and if the errors are
fixing to certain amount every time measuring are made, then it is called systematic
error.
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CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS
1. A student in physics lab wants to measure a very small wire.
a) What do you think he should use in order to measure a diameter of a small wire?
b) If the equipment that he used to measure the wire is not calibrated at zero scale, what
should he do?
2. A valid physics equation should have coherency of units of the equation. Why?
3. What is the different between accuracy and precision? In playing dart game, which one is
better, accuracy or precision?
DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS
1. Give the definitions of the terms stated below:
a) Physical quantity
b) Basic quantity
c) Derived quantity
2. Determine unit for the following quantities. Express them in their basics unit.
a) weight
b) tension
c) electric resistance
d) rate of flow
3. State the unit for constant, c for the following expressions. All symbols used are of the usual
notations.
a) F= cv2/r
b) v = c
c) p = cv2
d) E = 1/2cv2
4. Given mv = Ft2, where m is mass, v is speed, F is force, and t is time. What are the
dimensions of each side of the equation? Is the equation dimensionally correct?
5. The gravitational force, F depends on the gravitational constant, G, the mass of the object, m1
and mass of the Earth, m2 and the distance between the Earth and the center of gravity of the
objects, r. derive a formula for the gravitational force, F.
(Unit for gravitational constant, G: N m2 kg-2)
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COMPUTATIONAL QUESTIONS
1. Determine whether the expression given below is dimensionally valid.
a) E= hf
(E-energy, h-Planks constant (J s) and f-frequency)
b) 1/ = R (1/n2-1/m2)
(-wavelength, R-Rydberg constant (m-1), n and m are integers)
c) R = kSv2
(R- air resistance, k is a coefficient without unit, density, S - surface area and v-velocity)
d) E = mv3
(E - energy, m - mass and v - velocity)
2
Convert the following unit in metric system into their respective SI unit.
a) 70 km h-1
b) 75 liter min-1
c) 17 years
d) Distance of 2 light years
e) 90 nm
f) 68 g cm-3
g) 66 mm2
( Ans: 19.4 m/s, 1.2 x 10-3 m3 , 5.29 x10 8 s, 1.87 x 10 16 m, 9 x 10 -8 m, 6.8 x 104 kg/m3, 6.6 x 10 -5 m2)
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8. A series of bands fromYoungs double slit experiment are shown below. Find the size of a
bright band by using method of averaging.
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