Measurement

Introduction
In our daily life, we come across many things which need to be measured. In the past, people used to measure things by using human body parts like hand/palm, foot etc. But there are many limitations of such measurement method. e.g. length of hand/palm or foot varies from person to person. And therefore, need of standard measurement practice was emerged. The method of measurement depends upon the accuracy required. In this chapter, we are going to study need and importance of measurement, commonly used units, basic units and derived units.

Objective
After reading this lesson, one will be able to y Know the importance and need of measurement y Understand quantitative and qualitative measurements y Understand SI units y Know base units and derived units y Understand least count of instruments y Estimating weight of goods.

Importance of measurement Here are some of the reasons for which we need measurement: y y y y y y y y y To determine the true dimensions of a part. To increase our knowledge and understanding of the world. Needed for ensuring public health and human safety. To convert physical parameters into meaningful numbers. To test if the elements that constitute the system function as per the design. To evaluate the performance of a system. For studying some basic laws of nature. To evaluate the response of the system to particular point. To check the limitations of theory in actual situations.

In todays world, we cannot live without measurements. To provide with a idea, here are some familiar examples in our daily life: Grocery shop owner need to measure weight of goods, doctors need to measure temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate etc. Mechanic needs to measure tire pressure. Milkman needs to measure milk. Civil engineer needs to take no. of measurements of the construction site etc. Unit of measurement has become an essential part of proper communication.

Quantitative and Qualitative measurements We get new information everyday and from this information, we derive knowledge. This year we got good yield of rice, this is descriptive (qualitative) information. But This year we produced ten quintal rice is quantitative information. Science depends upon both quantitative and qualitative types of information. Therefore it is necessary to measurement all the characteristics. Qualitative Information Give me little water. Give me some money I ate sufficient food. Quantitative information Give me 200ml of water. Give me twenty rupees. I ate two chapattis. Table 1 Please refer Table1 for more examples. These little, sufficient, some, lot are examples of qualitative information which doesnt give exact information, whereas quantitative information like 200ml, Rs.20, 2 chapattis gives specific information. Recording all the useful information is basic requirement for improving productivity. Collecting proofs based on quantitative information are necessary to support ones invention or statements in general.

Measurement and SI units Measurement means assessing or evaluating a property of an object, using already known property of a similar object. The known things are called standards. In the past, there were different standards of measurement in different countries. Prominent among them were British standards and French Metric system. Now there are international standards (SI) for measurement. In India, SI units are used as a standard practice. Therefore, one will find only SI units in all Government contracts and agreements. We will also use SI units in our study. The characteristic which we measure is called as Parameter. Some of the important Parameters and their Units are given in Table 2: Parameter Weight Volume Distance Time British Unit Pound Gallon Yard, miles, inches Second Table 2 SI Units Kg Liters Meters Second

International standards of units The International System of Units (SI) is the modern, revised form of the metric system developed by French people. The SI allows easy multiplication when switching among units having the same base but different prefixes. To convert from meters to centimeters one has to just multiply the number of meters by 100. Inversely, to switch from centimeters to meters one has to multiply the number of centimeters by 0.01. Observe scale given in Fig.1. It gives conversion of various units into meter. e.g. 1 cm = 0.01m, 1 kilometer = 1000 meter

micromet er = 10-6 m

mm = 0.001 m

cm = 0.01m

meter (m)

deca = 10m

hecto = 100 m

kilo = mega 1000 = 106 m m

Fig.1. Meter and its multiple units Base units: There are two types of SI units: base units and derived units. Base units are the simple measurements for time, length, mass, temperature, and amount of substance, electric current and light intensity. Commonly used base units: Name Length Mass Time Electric Current meter gram second ampere Table 3 Derived units: Derived units are made up of base units, for example, unit of speed is m/s, which is combination of unit of distance and time. More examples of derived units are given in the Table 4. Symbol m gm s A

Derived Quantity Area Volume Speed, Velocity Acceleration Density

Name Square meter Cubic meter Meter per second Meter per second square Mass per cubic volume Table 4

Symbol m2 m3 m/s m/s2 kg/m3

Derived units are calculated as follows: 1) Speed = distance / time; unit of distance is meter and unit of time is second. Therefore unit of speed becomes m/s 2) Area of a square = length * breadth; unit of length and breadth is meter. Therefore unit of area = m * m = m2

Measuring other parameters How to measure other characteristic that do not fall under these categories? e.g. testing good behavior, smell, magnetism, light, colour etc. Measurement is nothing but comparison. For measuring these characteristics, we select the unit and judge the characteristics by measuring how many times the characteristic is measured more than the selected standard unit.

Factors affecting measurement: No measurement is absolute in nature. It is very difficult to claim any measurement 100% accurate. But we can always reduce the errors in measurement. Accuracy depends on many factors. Here are some of the factors which can affect the accuracy: y Reading taken by the individual. y The way of measurement. y Alertness of the individual while taking measurement. y Care taken by the individual in measurement. y Measuring instrument. In mathematics, we get exact answer for 2 ' 2 = 4, but while measuring 4 meters, it may be measured as 3.995 meter or 4.007 meter. This is not a wrong measurement but it shows lack of accuracy. Practically there are limitations to achieve 100% accuracy and it is not possible to have 100 accurate measurements every time.

Least count of an Instrument The smallest measurement one can get using an instrument is the least count of the instrument. e.g. on a common measuring scale the smallest measurement you can get is 1mm. This means the least count of the scale is 1mm. Never use any measuring instrument to measure below the least count of the instrument. This means, if you want to measure 0.05mm, then regular scale is not a correct device for it. While measuring, always take measurement one decimal higher than the least count on the measure. e.g. on the scale, if millimeter is the smallest sign of measure, then do not measure less than 0.1 millimeter. Further in decimal if last number is 5 or more than 5 then make the number previous to it as 1. e.g. in measurement of 3.9935 make it 3.994. Selection of instrument depends on the accuracy required. e.g. i) Normally we use wrist watch to measure/tell time but for athletics competitions in Olympic, we will need a watch which will measure even fraction of a second. ii) For measuring length of a wall of a building, we can use tape but for measuring length of a note book we need to use scale. iii) To measure weight of a truck, a weigh bridge is used. But to weigh your daily grocery, you need a simple balance.

Estimating weight of goods: Due to convention, many times we use different units than SI units. Many times things are sold using different measurement. For e.g. Iron is sold on per kg weight. This means though we measure dimensions for manufacturing a table in meter (length), to buy the required material we need to measure its weight as well. Similarly, for making estimate of a job, we have to take into consideration the weight of the angles used apart from its dimensions. Weight of material = Density of material * volume of job Volume of a job = Area of cross section of an object * length of object Density of iron is 7.87 gm/cm3 or 7870 Kg/m3

Example: 1) Calculate weight of an iron rod with 4 cm diameter and is 100 cm length. Area = / 4 * D2

Area = 3.14 / 4 * (4 * 4) = 12.56 cm2 Volume = Area * Length = 12.56 * 100 = 1256 cm3

Weight = Density * Volume = 7.87 * 1256 = 9884.72 gm = 9.88 Kg

2) Calculate weight of a 25 * 25 * 3 mm angle of length 3 meters.

Thickness =3mm

Fig. 2 Length = 25 mm = 2.5cm, thickness = 3 mm = 0.3 cm, Length = 3 meter = 300cm Area of cross section = (Area of vertical cross section) + Area of horizontal cross section = ( Length * breadth ) + ( Length * breadth ) = ( 2.5 * 0.3 ) + ( 2.5* 0.3 ) = 1.5 cm2 Length = 3 meter = 300 cm Volume = Area * Length = 1.5 * 300 = 450 cm3 Weight = Density * Volume = 7.87 * 450 = 3541.5 gm = 3.54 Kg

Summary Here is the summary of what we learned in the chapter: Importance of measurement: Measurement lets one make quantitative statements about things. It gives a base to understand the things.

Qualitative and quantitative measurements: Qualitative measurement is descriptive information about the things. Quantitative measurement is exact information about the things. SI Units: The International System of Units (SI) is the modern form of the metric system and it is the world's most widely used system of measurement. Base Units: The SI is founded on seven SI base units for seven base quantities assumed to be mutually independent. (meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, candela) Derived Units: Other quantities, called derived quantities, are defined in terms of the seven base quantities via a system of quantity equations. Lease count of an instrument: The smallest measurement you can get using an instrument is the least count of the instrument. We also learned to calculate weight of goods in this chapter.

Activity 1. 2. 3. 4. Write down factors affecting selection of measuring instruments. Measure dimensions of your house. Try guessing height of a pillar, without using a measuring device. Estimate weight of iron flat of following dimension.

L = 3 meter, breadth = 0.5 meter, thickness = 5 cm Density of iron is 7.87 gm/cm3 or 7870 Kg/m3