PHYSICS

INTRODUCTION
 Development in
science and
technology has
brought achievements
and breakthroughs
in various fields.

KL Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers

SMART tunnel Formula One Sepang

 Physics has developed out of the
efforts of men and women to explain
our physical environment
Physics predicts how nature will behave in
one situation based on the results of
experimental data obtained in another
situation
Newton’s Laws
Maxwell’s Equation
Charle’s Law
Coulomb’s Equation

and many other models,

theories, laws and
principles…..
 PHY110
CHAPTER 1:
PHYSICAL UNITS
 LEARNING OUTCOME
At the end of this chapter, students should be able to explain
and analyze:

1.1 MEASUREMENTS
1.2 UNITS AND STANDARD OF MEASUREMENTS
1.3 UNIT CONVERSION
 1.1 Measurements
Physics experiments involve the measurement of a variety
of quantities.
Measurement is a process to estimate or determine the
magnitude of a quantity.
should be accurate and reproducible.
However…… No measurement is exact.
There is always some uncertainty due to limited instrument
accuracy and difficulty reading results.
Uncertainty and Error in Measurement
• An error is the difference between the measured value
and the expected value of something (unavoidable).

• An uncertainty is a way of expressing or summarizing

the error (unavoidable)

• A mistake is simply not doing something correctly

through carelessness (avoidable).
 It would be
difficult to
measure the
width of this
board more
n
accurately tha
± 0.1 cm

Figure 1 : Measuring the width of a board with a centimeter ruler.

The uncertainty is ± 0.1 cm.
• Estimated uncertainty is written with a ± sign.

o Example: 8.8 ± 0.1 cm

• Percent uncertainty is the ratio of the uncertainty to the

measured value, multiplied by 100:
Example 1:
 Exercise 1:

State the width of the board measured using the centimeter

ruler as in figure below., and calculate the uncertainty
percentage. (Answer: 8.8 ± 0.1 cm; 1.1%)

8.8 cm
 Exercise 2:

State the time recorded on the stopwatch as in figure

below, and calculate the uncertainty percentage.
(Answer: 4 ± 1 s; 25%)
 Accuracy
 Accuracy indicates how close a measured value is to the
actual (true) value.

Precision
 Precision indicates how close together or how repeatable
the results are.

x x
x x
x

Low accuracy High accuracy High accuracy

High Precision Low Precision High Precision
 Sensitivity

Definition:
The ability of a measuring instrument to detect small
changes in the quantity being measured.

The uncertainty in a measured value can be reduced if a

more sensitive instrument is used to measure the quantity.

However, a measured value having a lesser uncertainty

than another value is said to be more precise.
Examples of Measuring Instruments
-Vernier Calliper
A vernier caliper is used to measure an object with
dimensions up to 12 cm with an accuracy of 0.01 cm.

Comprises of a main scale and a vernier scale.

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 The reading on the main scale is determined with
reference to the `0' mark on the vernier scale.

 The reading to be taken on the vernier scale is indicated

by the mark on the vernier scale which is exactly in line or
coincides with any main scale division line.
 Example in Figure below:
Examples of Measuring Instruments
-Micrometer Screw Gauge
This instrument can be used to measure diameters of
wires and thicknesses of steel plates to an accuracy of 0.01
mm.
 The micrometer scale comprises a main scale marked
on the sleeve and a scale marked on the thimble called
the thimble scale.
 One division on the thimble scale is 0.01 mm
 Example:
 Type of Errors
RANDOM ERRORS refer to random fluctuations in the measured data due to:
The readability of the instrument
The effects of something changing in the surroundings between measurements
The observer being less than perfect

SYSTEMATIC ERRORS refer to reproducible fluctuations consistently in the

same direction due to:
An instrument being wrongly calibrated
An instrument with zero error (it does not read zero when it should – to correct
for this, the value should be subtracted from every reading)
The observer being less than perfect in the same way during each
measurement.
 Absolute Errors
 Is an estimation of the difference between the measured
value and the real value. It also known as error, Δ.
Example:

If the exact mass of an object is 5.0kg and you estimated

mass between 4.8kg and 5.2kg. State the mass of the
object.
mass, m= 5.0kg
error, Δm= 0.2kg
Thus the mass, m= 5.0 ±0.2kg

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 Relative Errors
 Is the ratio of the absolute error to the real/exact value of some
measured quantity.

 Example: (by using reference of previous example)

Relative error = Δm = 0.2 = 0.04

m 5.0

Percentage error = 0.2 x 100% = 4%

5.0
 Zero Errors
 Must be determined before measurement made.
 Zero error is non zero reading shown by instrument
when not measuring any object.

Figure 2. Example of a zero error detected of a vernier caliper.

 To get true reading, we need to subtract the zero
error from the observed reading.

 Example:
Vernier Caliper

  (a) Positive zero error

Zero error = +0.04 cm.
 
0.02cm

0.70 cm
0.72 cm
Vernier Caliper

(b) Negative zero error

Zero error = -0.02 cm.
1.2: UNITS AND STANDARD OF MEASUREMENTS
System of Units
 Physical Quantities
• Something which can be observed and measured.
• Examples: Length, area, volume, speed, weight,
temperature, electric current.

Unit
• A standard value or size for measuring a particular physical
quantity. Units of Measurements:
– The Metric & System International (SI) Units.
The metric system is used by scientists and health
professionals throughout the world. In 1960, the
System International (SI) units were adopted from
the metric system by scientists to provide uniformity
for units of measurements used in the sciences.

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 Basic Quantities
• Several physical quantities are chosen to become basic
quantities for the unit system (not derived from any other
quantity) - See table 1.1.

Derived Quantities
• Quantities that are obtained from the combination of
various base quantity through multiplication, division or
both - See table 1.2.

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Table 1.1: There are seven (7) basic quantities

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 Table 1.2: Derived quantities, derived unit and
their relationship

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 Standard of Measurements

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Unit of Length: the Meter

Ruler Micrometer Screw Gauge

Vernier Calliper
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 A Cubic Volume
A cube measuring 10 cm on each side
has a volume of 1000 cm3, or 1 L. A
cube measuring 1 cm on each side has
a volume of 1 cm3 (cc) or 1 ml.

A plastic intravenous
fluid container contains
1000 ml. 36
 Mass
The mass of an object is a measure of the quantity of
material it contains.
- in the metric system, the mass unit is the gram (g).
- in the SI system, the mass unit is the kilogram (kg).
Compare to US weight units:
1 kg = 2.20 lbs
1 lb = 454 grams

Mass is not the same thing as weight. Weight has

meaning only when an object having a specific mass is placed in
an acceleration field, such as the gravitational field of the earth.
At the earth's surface, a kilogram mass weighs about 2.2 pounds,
for example. But on Mars, the same kilogram mass would weigh
only about 0.8 pounds, and on Jupiter it would weigh roughly 5.5
pounds.
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Temperature
Scales

The temperature of an object

tells us how hot or cold the
object is.
- the Celsius (C) scale is based
on the temperatures of melting
ice (0C) and boiling point
(100C) of water as references
and is divided into 100 units.
units

- the Fahrenheit (F) scale is

also based on the temperatures
of melting ice (32F) and boiling
point (212 F) of water as
references but is divided into
180 units.
units

1 C = 1.8 F

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Notice that 1 degree kelvin = 1 degree Celsius
 TOPIC 1.3: UNIT CONVERSION
Prefixes
 Prefixes are POWER PREFIX ABBREV.
the preceding x 10-12 pico p
factor used to x 10-9 nano n
represent very x 10-6 micro 
small and very x 10-3 milli m
large physical x 10-2 centi c
quantities in SI
x 10-1 deci d
units.
x 103 kilo k
x 106 Mega M
x 109 Giga G
x 1012 Tera T
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 Metric and SI Prefixes

meter
Metric and SI Prefixes s

The M-83 spiral galaxy is

about 9.3 x 1019 km or 5.8
x 1019 miles away from
meter Earth.

pico p one-trillionth 0.000 000 000 001 10–12

femto f one-quadrillionth 0.000 000 000 000 001 10–15

The distance between an

Oxygen atom and a Hydrogen
atom in a water molecule is
95.8 pm, which is 9.58 x 10–11
Scale model of the Earth and the Moon, with a beam of light travelling between m or 0.0958 nm.
them at the speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second). The accepted
Moon-Earth distance is 384,000 km or about 238,000 miles.
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 Unit Conversion

 In physical or sciences, we need to convert a

measurement from one set of units to another.
 Normally the conversion is in S.I. Unit.
 Example of conversion units:
 1 m = 100 cm
 1 cm = 10 mm
 1 liter = 10-3 cm3
 1 hour = 60 minutes = 3600 s

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 • Conversion unit involve:
length, area and volume

LENGTH: 1m  100 cm

AREA:
1 m2  1 m 1 m
 100 cm  100 cm
 10 000 cm 2
 1  10 4 cm 2

VOLUME: 1 m3  1 m  1 m  1 m
 100 cm  100 cm  100 cm
 1 000 000 cm 3
 1  106 cm 3
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Example 1.2
• 45 cm = ? km
 1  10 -2 m  1km 
45 cm  45 cm x   
 1 cm  1  10 m 
3

5
45 cm  45x10 km
4
45 cm  4.5x10 km

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Example 1.3
• 35 km.hr-1 = ? m.s-1
35 km 35 km 1 10 m  1hr  1min 
 3
    
1 hr 1hr  1 km  60 min  60 s 
35 km  35  (1  10 3 )  m
  
1hr  60x60  s
1 1
35 km.hr  9.72 ms

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Example 1.4
• 20 kg.m-3 = ? g.cm-3
3
20kg 20kg  1 10 g  1 10 m 
3 2

3
 
3 
 
1m 1m  1kg  1cm 

  

20kg 20kg  1 103 g  1 10 6 m 3 
3 
1m 3
1m  1kg  1cm  3
20kg  20  (1 103 )  (1 10  6 )  g
3
   3
1m  1  cm
20kg.m 3  2  10  2 g.cm 3

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Exercise 1.1

1. What meant by (a) basic quantity, (b) derived

quantity, (c) physical quantity and (d) unit.

2. Derived the unit for the following physical

quantities
a. Velocity d. Tension
b. Acceleration e. Momentum
c. Force f. Frequency

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Exercise 1.2

1. Convert:
a. 45 cm to km e. 20 kg to g
b. 20 cm3 to m3 f. 0.01 m2 to mm2
c. 36 min to s g. 20 kgm-3 to gcm-3
d. 25 km/h to m/s

2. A house is 50 ft long and 26 ft wide, and has 8.0 ft high

ceilings. What is the volume of the interior of the house in
cubic meters and in cubic centimeters? (1 m = 3.281 ft)

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Exercise 1.3

1. Convert:
a. 350 MHz to Hz e. 25 nm to m
b. 6 A to A f. 30 kJ to J
c. 0.255 s to ms g. 265,500,000 to GW
d. 2000 J to kJ

2. The thickness of a film is 30 nm. What is the thickness

in unit meter.

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