Republic of the Philippines

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Region IX, Zamboanga Peninsula
DIVISION OF ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE
GUTALAC NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Gutalac, Zambonga del Norte

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEETS

General Physics I
Quarter 1, 1st Week, Lesson 1

Name:________________________________________________Grade/Strand:__________________
Address:______________________________________________ Date:__________________________

LEARNING COMPETENCY

The learners will be able to:

a. Solve measurement problems involving conversion of units, expression of measurements in scientific
notation.

Systems of Measurement
Measurement is made up of a number and a unit. For example, the length of a table is 2 meters long. To have
accurate measurements, you must make sure that both the number and the unit are correct.

The English or British system comprises units such as pound ( for force ), yard ( for length), and ounce ( for
volume ). Meanwhile, the metric system constitutes units based on powers of 10, which makes it the preferred system to
be used in science. For example, 1 kilometer ( km ) is equal to 10 3 meters ( m ), and 1 milligram ( mg ) is equal to 10 -3
gram ( g ). In 1960, the units of the metric system were streamlined by an international conference held in France. The
conference then created the SI, which stands for Systeme international d’unites or the International System of Units. It
is built upon a set of seven metric units, which are called base units.

Table 1.1 The SI Base Units

Physical Quantity Unit Name Symbol

Mass Kilogram Kg
Length Meter m
time second s
Amount of substance mole mol
temperature kelvin K
Electric current ampere A
Luminous intensity candela cd
In addition to these seven base units, other SI units can be made from combinations of the base units. A combination of
two or more base units is called a derived unit. A common derived unit is volume, which is the product of a
regular solid’s length, width, and height.

Unit Prefixes
A prefix is a letter or a group of letters added at the beginning of the base word to change its meaning. In
measurement, a unit prefix or metric prefix can be used to make a new unit larger or smaller than the base unit. Table 1.2
summarizes some unit prefixes.

Table 1.2 Prefixes for powers of 10.

Power of Prefix Abbreviation Power of Prefix Abbreviation

Ten Ten
1012 Tera T 10-2 centi c
9
10 Giga G 10-3 milli m
106 Mega M 10-6 micro u
103 kilo k Dimensional Analysis
10-9 nano n
M a n y p r o b l e m s i n
between units is called dimensional analysis.
1
The starting point for dimensional analysis is unit equality. A unit equality or conversion factor is an equation that
shows the equivalent amounts of different units. Some important unit equalities are given in table 1.3.

Table 1.3 Common Si-English unit equalities

Unit Equivalent
Equivalent
Unit
Unit
1 inch ( in ) 2.54 cm
1 gallon 3. 788 L
( gal )
1 calorie ( cal ) 4. 186 joules
(J)
Unit Unit Equivalent
1 atmosphere 101 325 Unit
(atm) pascals 1 slug 14.59 kg
( Pa) 1 Newton ( N ) 0.2248 lb
1 foot ( ft) 12 in 1 electronvolt 1.602 x 10-19 J
1 mile ( mi) 5280 ft ( eV)

Example:
How many inches are there in 12 m ?
Solution:
a. 1 in = 2.54 cm
100 cm = 1 m
b. 1 in/ 2.54 cm and 2.54 cm/1 in
100 cm/ 1 m and 1 m/ 100 cm

c. Use d as the variable to represent the length of 12 m.

d=12 m x 100 cm/1m x 1 in / 2.54 cm = 472 in

Answer: There are 472 in for every 12 m.

Scientific Notation
In Physics , it is very common to work with very large or very small numbers. For example, the mass of the sun is
approximately 1 990 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg, and the mass of a proton is approximately
0.0000000000000000000000000016726231 kg. To express numbers like these simpler, they are usually written in
scientific notation.
A number written in scientific notation has two parts – a number from 1 to 9, and a power of 10 in exponential
form. For example, the number 0.000123 can be written in scientific notation as 1.23 x 10 -4. Notice that the first part
contains only the significant digits of the original number, and the second part is in the form of 10 n, where n is the
exponent.

Example No. 1
Express 1000 in powers of 10.
Solution: 1000 can be written as 1000 = 10 x 10 x 10 = 103
Example No. 2

Express 0.001 in powers of 10

Solution : 0.001 = 1/1000 = 1/ 10 x 10 x 10 = 1/103 = 10-3

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Convert the following quantities into the desired units. Show the complete series of
conversion factors needed.
1. ( volume ) 28.5 L = ___________ um3 4. 83 m = ______ cm
2. ( speed )80 km/hr = __________ ft/s 5. 4 in = _______ cm
3. ( mass ) 24 Kg = _________ lb.
2
Activity 2: Express the following numbers in scientific notation.
1. 1 230 045 600 000 = ______________________________
2. 0.00000876000 = _________________________________
3. 0.00034500 x 10-2 = _______________________________
4. 958 000. 8900 x 10-6 = _____________________________
5. 1 990 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 = ________________________

Activity 3: Express the following numbers in scientific notation to standard form.

1. 3.1 x 103 = ______________________________

2. 5. 4236 x 10-4 = ______________________________
3. 406.5 x 10-5 = ___________________________
4. 5.5 x 107 = _________________________________
5. 0.98 x 102 = ________________________________

Prepared by:
CAHAYAG, GERALDINE B.
Subject Teacher

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