Senior High School

GENERAL PHYSICS 1
Quarter 1 - Module 1
Physical Quantities and
Measurements
General Physics 1 - Grade 12
Alternative Delivery Mode
Quarter 1 - Module 1: Physical Quantities and Measurements
First Edition, 2020

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 Senior High School

GENERAL PHYSICS 1
Quarter 1 - Module 1

Physical Quantities and

Measurements
 What I Need To Know
This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you learn
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The module is divided into four lessons, namely:

• Lesson 1 – Units and Measurement
• Lesson 2 – Accuracy and Precision
• Lesson 3 – Errors
• Lesson 4 – Scalar and Vector Quantities

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Solve problems involving measurement and perform operations with scientific
notation.
2. Discuss the concept of accuracy and precision
3. Discuss the concept by giving examples of the different types of errors.
4. Solve a given vector quantity.

What I Know

TRUE OR FALSE: Write T, if the statement is true and F, if the statement is false.Read the
statement completely and determine if the statement is true or false. In the blank provided,
write “True” for a true statement and “False” for a false statement. Each True/False question
is worth 3 points.
1. When the uncertainty is large, it is a reflection of the experimenter’s belief that the
measurement has a low degree of accuracy.
2. It is not possible that the degree of precision is high but the accuracy is low.
3. When the uncertainty is small compared to the measurement itself, it means that the
measurement is accurate.
4. Displacement can never be greater than distance.
5. We can find precision of a measurement by making repeated careful measurements of
unlike quantities.
Lesson
Units and Measurements
1

What’s In
It has been said that Physics is at the heart of every development. Physics deals
with the understanding of the natural world. It is the underlying order of nature that
makes science in general, and Physics in particular, so enjoyable study. The basic
concepts and principles are discussed first, followed by practical examples and
applications of Physics in the real world.

What’s New

In this lesson, you will learn and understand nature much more deeply than does
qualitative description alone, numerical values for physical quantities and equations for
physical principles , which is considered in this lesson. To comprehend these vast ranges,
we must study the units and measurements in which to express them.

What is It

• Physics is an experimental science and simply it begins with measurement. It can be

expressed as combinations of only four fundamental quantities: length, mass , time,
and electric current.
• Measurement is simply a comparison of a physical quantity with standard to carry
and its physical quantities are expressed in terms of units which are standardized
values. For example, length of race, which is a physical quantity, can be expressed in
unit meters.
Standards of Length, Mass, Time, Electric Current
• In mechanics, the three basic quantities are length (L), mass (M), time (T) and
electric current ( I ).
• In 1960, an international committee established a set of standards for length, mass,
and other basic quantities. The system established is an adaptation of the metric
system, and it is called the SI system of units.
• The standard unit for length is meter (m).
• The basic SI unit of mass is kilogram (kg).
• The basic SI unit of time is second (s).
• The basic SI unit of Electric Current is Ampere (A).
• In addition to the basic SI units of meter, kilogram, and second, we can also use
other units, such as millimeters and nanoseconds, where the prefixes milli- and nano-
denote various powers of ten. Some of the most frequently used prefixes for the
various powers of ten and their abbreviations are listed in table below.
 - For example, 10-3 m is equivalent to 1 millimeter (mm), and 103 m corresponds to 1
kilometer (km). Likewise, 1 kg is 103 grams (g), and 1 megavolt (MV) is 106 volts (V)

SI UNITS
• SI units (which stands for Syste`me International d’unit´es) are based on the meter
as the base unit of length, the kilogram as the base unit of mass, and the second as
the base unit of time.
• SI units also define four other base units (the ampere, kelvin, candela, and mole
• The meter is the lenght of path travelled by the light in a vacuum in 1/2999,792,458 of a
second..
• The kilogram is the mass of the standard platinum – iridium cylinder.
• The second was defined as 1/86,400 the length of a day (one rotation of the Earth).
• The definitionof the ampere isrelated to electrical properties, ultimately relating to the
meter, kilogram, and second.
• The kelvin was defined in terms of the thermodynamic properties of water, as well as
absolute zero.
• The candela was defined by the luminous properties of molten tungsten and the behavior
of the human eye.
• The mole was defined by the density of the carbon-12 nucleus.

Power Prefix Abbreviation

10−24 Yocto y
10−21 Zepto z
10−18 Atto a
10−15 Femto f
10−12 Pico p
10−9 Nano n
10−6 Micro µ
10−3 Milli m
10−2 Centi c
10−1 Deci d
101 Deka da
103 Kilo k
106 Mega M
109 Giga G
1012 Tera T
1015 Peta P
1018 Exa E
1021 Zetta Z
1024 Yotta Y
 What’s More
CONVERSION OF UNITS

• To convert length from a larger unit into a smaller unit, multiply by the relevant power
of 10.
• To convert length from a smaller unit into a larger unit, divide by the relevant power
of 10.
• THE SAME GOES WHEN CONVERTING MASS AND TIME IN SI UNITS.

10 mm = 1 cm
100 cm = 1 m
1000 m = 1 km

Adapted from Angelina Silverio A. , Ph.D, General Physics 1 For Senior High School

• Few countries continue to use the British system of units (e.g., the United States).
1 foot
12 inches
2.54 cm.
1 inch
1 mile
1760 yards
30.5 cm.
1 foot
1.6 km.
1 mile

Whenever we do conversions, it’s important to put whatever we want we put on top and
whatever we have we put on the bottom.

Adapted from Angelina Silverio A. , Ph.D, General Physics 1 For Senior High School

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

Scientific notation is a standard way of writing very large and very small numbers so
that they’re easier to both compare and use in computations.
• Regardless of their magnitude, all numbers can be expressed in the form N x 𝟏𝟎𝒏
where N is a number between 1 and 10 and n, the exponent, is a positive or negative
integer (whole number).
• (1) Express 568.762 in scientific notation: 568.762 =5.68762 x 𝟏𝟎𝟐
 What I Have Learned

Exercise A: Use the table in module 01 (SHOW YOUR SOLUTIONS) Write each answer
in scientific notation.

1. 30 cm to mm
2. 5 m to mm .
3. 7 m to cm
4. 9 km to mm
5. 56.4 m to cm

Exercises B: Use the Table of Conversions (SHOW YOUR SOLUTIONS)

1. 4 cm to inches
2. 35 m to feet
3. 65 m to yards
4. 57 km. to miles
5. 63 ft. to miles

Exercises C: (SHOW YOUR SOLUTIONS)

1. Jorge must mark off a field that is 250 ft by 85 ft. His tape measure is marked in
meters. What are the dimensions of the field in meters?
2. 2. The speed limit on some highways is roughly 100 km/h. What is this in meters per
second? What is this in miles per hour?

What I Can Do

What is the difference between derived and fundamental quantities?

Lesson
Accuracy and Precision
2

What’s In
In the previous lesson, you learned about the importance of measurement in
physics and we cannot deny that measurement is one of the basics in studying this
field. Different units, scientific notation and conversion of units were also studied in
the past lesson.
 What’s New
In this lesson , you will learn the difference between the accuracy and precision. A
common misconception to us, is that accuracy and precision are quite interchangeable but in
Physics, these two word have different meanings. We need also to study accuracy and
precision since Science particularly is based on observation and experiment.

What is It

• Accuracy is a degree of agreement between a measured value and the true value.
For example, if in lab you obtain a weight measurement of 3.2 kg for a given
substance, but the actual or known weight is 10 kg, then your measurement is not
accurate. In this case, your measurement is not close to the known value.

• Precision refers to the degree by which these repeated measurements agree with
one another . Using the example above, if you weigh a given substance five times,
and get 3.2 kg each time, then your measurement is very precise. Precision is
independent of accuracy. You can be very precise but inaccurate, as described
above. You can also be accurate but not precise.

• For example, if on average, your measurements for a given substance are close to
the known value, but the measurements are far from each other, then you have
accuracy without precision.

• A good analogy for understanding accuracy and precision is to imagine a basketball

player shooting baskets. If the player shoots with accuracy, his aim will always take
the ball close to or into the basket. If the player shoots with precision, his aim will
always take the ball to the same location which may or may not be close to the
basket.

What’s More

ACCURACY
Let us say that you are measuring the length of a standard computer paper. The
packaging in which you purchased the paper states that it is 11 inches long.You measure
the length of the paper three times and obtain the following measurements. 11.1 in., 11.2 in.,
10.9 in These measurements are quite accurate because they are very close to the correct
value. In contrast, if you had obtained a measurement of 12 inches, you’re measurement
would not be very accurate
PRECISION
Consider the example of the paper measurement above. The precision of a
measurement refers to how close the agreement Is between repeated measurements. One
way to analyze the precision of measurements would be to determine the range, difference
between the lowest and the highest measured values. In that case, the lowest value is 10.9
and highest is 11.2. The measured values deviated from each other by at most 0.3 inch.
These measurements were relatively precise because they did not vary too much of the
value
 What I Have Learned

Instruction: Analyze and answer the following problems step-by-step.

1. The following measurements were made to determine the density of a material

whose value was, according to the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 1.24 g/mL.

Trial #1 1.20 g/mL Trial #2 1.22 g/mL Trial #3 1.22 g/mL

a. Make a general comment on the accuracy of these results.

b. Make a general comment on the precision of these results.
c. What may have caused these results?

2. Place 4 dots on each target with the appropriate level of accuracy and precision.

Adapted from Angelina Silverio A. , Ph.D, General Physics 1 For Senior High School

What I Can Do

On Your Own!
a. Create one image representing accuracy but not precision .
b. Create a second image representing precision but not accuracy.
c. Create a third image representing accuracy and precision.

Lesson
Errors in Measurement
3

What’s New

In this lesson, you will learn the Uncertainty and error analysis. The degree of
accuracy and precision is related to the uncertainty in the measurements and errors.
 Since measurement, as with any other endeavor, are prone to errors. We are aware
that no matter how careful we are in doing our measurements, we do commit or
encounter some errors. What are these errors?

What is It
Measurement always have some degree of uncertainty due to unavoidable errors.
• Error is the technical term for uncertainty in reading a measurement .
• Uncertainty is a way of expressing this error.
• Error in measurement means an uncertainty between the measured value and
standard value.
• Errors may be grouped into two classes: Systematic Error and Random Error.
• Systematic error is always produced of the same sign. On the Other hand, usually
come from measuring instrument or in the design of the experiment itself.
• Random error describes errors that fluctuate due to the unpredictability or
uncertainty inherent in your measuring process, or the variation in the quantity you’re
trying to measure. As the name suggest, result from unpredictable or inevitable
changer during data measurement.
• Taking measurements of a quantity that changes from moment to moment leads to
random error or the factors vary and are unknown.
• One may commit systematic error if the measurement tends to make all observations
too big or too small. On the other hand, when positive and negative errors occur are
equally probable to occur , we have a random error.
• Systematic Errors may be classified into three: Instrumental, Personal and
External.
• Errors caused by faulty or inaccurate apparatus are called instrumental errors.
• Errors that evolved from peculiarity or bias of the observer are called personal errors.
• Errors caused by external conditions like temperature, humidity wind and vibrations
are called external errors.

Estimating Errors
• How do we estimate errors from multiple measurements of a physical quantity using
a variance?
• Numerical error of the sum is the sum of the nmerical errors of the individual
quantities.
• Percentage error of the product or quotient of several numbers is the sum of the
percentage errors of the several quantities before the calculation.
( 𝒙−𝒙𝒕 )
Percent error= 𝒙 𝟏𝟎𝟎 %
𝒙𝒕
Where 𝒙𝒕 is the true accepted value and x is the measured value. It is usually
considered in judging the accuracy of a measurement.
• If we have a several readings, say n readings, we can take the sum of these
readings and take the arithmetic mean.
• Take the individual deviations, d of the readings from the arithmetic mean. Take the
average these deviation by getting the sum of te deviations (without regard the sign )
divided by the number of observations , n .
∑𝑑
• In the equation form average deviation , a.d. = 𝑛
 𝒂.𝒅.
• The average deviation of the mean A.D., is given by A.D =
√𝒏

What’s More

Let us say we have several trials of the measurement of the lenght of a tube given in the
table below.

LENGTH DEVIATION
12.30 -0.04
12.35 0.01
12.31 -0.03
12.34 0.00
12.36 0.02
12.38 0.04
12.33 -0.01
12.35 0.01
∑x= 98.72 ∑d=0.16

∑ 𝑥 98.72
• Take the mean of these values ,mean = = =12.34
𝑛 8
• Take the deviations of the values from the mean ( see these in the second column in
the table above). Compute for the value of a.d and A.D. Thus , using the given
formula , the best average value of the set of observations is 12.34 + 0.01 cm.

What I Have Learned

1. Estimate the errors of the results of the given measurement.
LENGTH DEVIATION
22.5 -0.03
25.0 0.02
27.5 -0.01
30.0 0.00
32.5 0.02
35.0 0.05
37.5 -0.02
40.0 0.01

3. What relation exist between average deviation and average deviation of the
mean?How do we use variance in estimating errors of measurements.

What I Can Do
 1. Provide at least five examples of a systematic error that you usually encounter daily.
Explain how it becomes a systematic error.
2. Provide at least three (2) examples of a random error that you usually encounter
daily. Explain how it becomes a systematic error.

Lesson
Scalar and Vector Quantities
4

What’s New
Describing an object is a great challenge for everyone. It takes ones profound
knowledge and imagination to describe physical phenomena from the core of its existence
and explain how it moves over a course of time. However, single number alone is not
enough to describe and explain one phenomena. And so, with Physics, it requires two
mathematical quantities to describe and explain things namely magnitude and direction. In
this lesson, you will learn how mathematics helps explain physical phenomena with the
concept of a vector.

What is It

• Physical quantities are the numerical equivalent or quantitative description of matter

or objects.
• Physical quantities can also be classified as scalars or vectors.
• Scalar quantities comes from the latin word “scala” meaning step or ladder , are
physical quantities expressed as magnitudes with their corresponding units. They do
not require direction. Some examples of these are mass, density, amount of
substance, time, temperature, energy and pressure.
• Vector quantities originates from latin word “vehere” meaning to carry , are physical
quantities that are expressed as magnitudes with their corresponding units and
direction. Examples of vectors are velocity, acceleration, force, weight, friction,
impulse, momentum, magnetic field
and electric field.
• A Vector is represented by a symbol
arrow . The head represents the
direction while the tail represents the
origin. The lenght of the arrow also
represents the magnitude.

• For example, we draw a vector for

wind blowing 45 degrees at 30
km/hr in the northeast direction.
Adapted from Helen E. Caintic , Ph.D, General Physics 1 For Senior High School
VECTOR ADDITION
• The sum of two or more vwctor quantities is called Resultant.
 • Resultant is the single vector that, if substituted in place of several vectors to be
added, would produce the same combined effect of these vectors and is usually
represented by R.
• Vector addition is commutative, that is the order of adding vectors may be changed
without affecting the resultant.
• Vaector addition is also associative , that is grouping of vectors may also be changed
without affecting the resutants. In symbols

A+B = B+A
( A+B)+C = A+ (B+C)

Adapted from Helen E. Caintic , Ph.D, General Physics 1 For Senior High School

COMPONENT METHOD

• A single vector is usually divided into two vectors (x and y )that are perpendicular to
each other. These two vectors are called components.
• The components may be positive or negative depending on which quadrant the
vertor is found or simply signs will be based to Cartesian Coordinate System.
• Since the vertical and horizontal components are perpendicular , the magnitude of
the resultant may be calculated from the Pythagorenan Theorem. 𝒂𝟐 + 𝒃𝟐 = 𝒄𝟐

What’s More
• Example A : A student drives his car 6.0 km, North before making a right hand turn
and driving 6.0 km to the East. Finally, the student makes a left hand turn and travels
another 2.0 km to the north. What is the magnitude of the overall displacement of the
student?

R2 = (8.0 km)2 + (6.0 km)2

R2= 64.0 km2 + 36.0 km2
R2 = 100.00 km2
R= √(100.0 𝑘𝑚2 R = 10.0 km

• In solving the angle Ø ,Adapted

we mayfrom Helen E. Caintic , Ph.D, General Physics 1 For Senior High School
use the SOH CAH TOA .
∑𝒚
Ø=𝒕𝒂𝒏−𝟏 ∑𝒙
Based on the example , the Ø at the origin is 36.87 degrees.

• EXAMPLE B:
A Balloon is rising at 3.6 m/s and at the same time is being blown by wind of 5.4 m/s
froem the east. Find the actual velocity of the balloon.

R2 = (3.6.0 m/s)2 + (5.4 m/s)2

R = 6.5 m/s
 3.6 𝑚/𝑠
Tan Ø=
5.4 𝑚/𝑠
Ø = 34 degrees

What I Have Learned

Solve the following problems:

1. Two forces A and B acting on a particle. Force A is 3 N directed north and B is 4

newton, 30 degrees of east. Find the resultant force using the laws of sines and
cosine.
2. Suppose we have a Resultant Force of 30 N in the direction 30 degrees North of
East , find the x component and the y component.
3. A jogger runs 4 m ,40 degrees N of E, 2 m east , 5.20 m 30 degrees S of W ,
6.50 m S, and then collapses ( Kuyapan cHoi). Find his resultant vector.
4. To go to a nearby convenience store from her dormitory, student walks 12 meters
north and 5 meters east. What is the students displacement from her dormitory?

What I Can Do

What is the effect of increasing angle between two vectors to be added on the
magnitude of their result ? when is the resultant minimum? when is the resultant maximum?

Assessment

A. Solve the following problems step-by-step.

1. A person has a resultant vector of 5.0 m in the direction 37 degrees North of East.
How far north and how far east had he walked?
2. A plane flying due north at 100 meters per second is blown by a strong wind at 500
meters per second due east. What is the plane's resultant velocity?
B. Convert the following quantities and show answer in scientific notation.

1. 75000 mm to m
2. 676 m to km.
3. 548000 cm to km
4. 350 dL to L
5. 3000g to kg.

Additional Activities

What are the types of error you always encounter give me at least two example.
References

Caintic, Heide. General Physics 1. Quezon City: C and E publishing, 2016.

Young, H. D., & Freedman, R. A. . University Physics with modern Physics (12th ed.).
Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.2008
Gadong, Early Sol A., & Belleza, Raphael V. General Physics 1.Quezon City: Vibal
Publishing ,2016.
Silverio, Angelina A. General Physics 1. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing, 2016

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Department of Education – Division of Bohol

Office Address: 0050 Lino Chatto Drive, Brgy. Cogon, Tagbilaran City, Bohol
Telephone Nos.: (038) 412-4938; (038) 411-2544; (038) 501-7550
Telefax: (038) 501-7550
E-mail Address: deped.bohol@deped.gov.ph