CHAPTER 1

UNIT AND MEASUREMENT

1.1 Introduction by multiplication, division or both. Their

unit is determined from the relation between
Measurement is very important especially in
the base quantities and the derived
technical field. A lot of quantities and units
quantities.
are involved in measurement. This chapter

Chapter 1: Unit and Measurement.

Table 1.2
covered the topics base on physical
quantities and its unit and how the List of some derived quantity
conversion of units is done. Relation with
Quantity Symbol Unit
base quantities
1.2 Base and Derived Quantities Area A Length x width m2
Volume V area x height m3
Base quantity and derived quantity is a part mass
of physical quantity. Physical quantity is Density  kgm-3
volume
defined as the quantity that can be measured. displacement
Base quantity is a physical quantity that Velocity v ms-1
time
cannot be derived from other physical velocity change
Acceleration a ms-2
quantities (see table 1a). time
Force x Nm
Work W displacement @J
Table 1.1
work
Power P Js-1
List of some base quantity time
Quantity Symbol SI Unit (Symbol)
The International System of Units (abbreviated
Length l Meter (m)
SI from the French le Système international
Mass m Kilogram (kg)
Time t Second (s) d'unités) is the modern form of the metric
Temperature  Kelvin (K) system and is generally a system of units of
Electric measurement devised around seven base units
I Ampere (A) and the convenience of the number ten. It is the
Current
Luminous world's most widely used system of
Iv Candela (cd) measurement, both in everyday commerce and
intensity
Amount of in science.
n Mole (mol)
substance
Physical quantity that can be derived in
terms of base quantity is called derived
quantity. They can be obtained from a
combination of various base quantities either

1
 CHAPTER 1

1.3 Scalar and Vector Quantities

Physical quantity that only has magnitude is Hence, distance = 507+138+369= 1014km.
called Scalar Quantity while physical
quantity that has both magnitude and Displacement is the shortest distance
direction is called Vector Quantity. between the starting and ending point.

Table 1.3 Since Zainal’s final location is the same as

List of some base quantity his starting location, his final displacement
Scalar Quantity Vector Quantity = 0 km
Speed Velocity
Distance Displacement
Volume Weight Example: Speed vs Velocity
Temperature Acceleration
Time Momentum

Example: Distance vs Displacement

Travelling
Travelling at 70
70 km/h Travelling at 70 km/h
West
West East
Kangar

Figure 1.2: Speed vs velocity

138 km

507 km
Although both cars are travelling at the same
Butterworth
speed, i.e. 70 km/h, they are travelling at
369 km
different velocity because the directions are
Kuala Lumpur
different.
Figure 1.1: Zainal travelling path

1.4 Conversion of Units

Zainal traveled from Kuala Lumpur to
In certain condition, physical units need to
Kangar, a distance 507 km. After that, he
be changed. It is necessary when calculation
continued her journey to Butterworth, a
involves the usage of formula where the
distance of 138 km. From Butterworth,
units of every quantity must be uniform.
Zainal then traveled back to Kuala Lumpur,
a distance of 369 km. (see figure 1.1)
Table 1.4
Distance is a total length traveled by the
List of some basic unit conversion
object.
 CHAPTER 1

Basic Unit Conversion Prefixes are used to represent physical

1 km 1000 m quantities which are very big or very small
Length 1m 100 cm
1 cm 10 mm in SI units.
1 hour 60 Table 1.5
minutes List of prefixes with its abbreviation and
Time 1 minute 60
value
seconds
1 hour 3600 s Prefixe Numerical
Abbreviation factor
Mass 1 kg 1000 g s value
Tera- T 1 000 000 000 000 1012
Giga- G 1 000 000 000 109
Example: rewrite the following quantities in Mega- M 1 000 000 106
the given unit. Kilo- k 1 000 103
Hecto- h 100 102
a) 15km  _____m Deca- da 10 101
b) 25 cm 2
 _____m 2 Deci- d 0.1 10-1
Centi- c 0.01 10-2
c) 30 km/h  _____m/s Milli- m 0.001 10-3
d) 31.8 g/cm3  _____kg/m3 Micro- μ 0.000 001 10-6
Nano- n 0.000 000 001 10-9

Answers: Exercise
a) 15 km = 15×1000 m = 15 000 m 1. Write the definition of base quantity and
2 -2 2 2
b) 25 cm = 25 × (10 ) m derived quantity. Give 4 examples each.
-3 2
= 2.5 × 10 m 2. What is the difference(s) between scalar
30 km 1000 m 1h quantity and vector quantity? Give 2
c) 30 km/h = × ×
h 1 km 3600 s
examples each.
= 30.2778 m/s
3. Convert the following to the unit given.
d) 31.8 g/cm3 = a) 16 m/s2  _____km/h2

3 3
b) 69 N/m2  _____kN/m2
31.8 g 1 kg (100) cm
3
× × c) 8.64 km2  _____mm2
cm 1000 g 1 m3
= 3 180 kg/m3 d) 1.8 kg/m3  _____g/cm3

1.5 Prefixes